Over the Mountians and Under the Hills
by HerGambitAndSwanSong
Summary: It wasn't a diamond ring, or cool phone-case, it wasn't even a wad of cash; it was an amulet. Meet Wendy Parrish, previous Canadian now road tripping across America with her brother Alec where she stumbled upon an amulet. Follow her as if attempts to find the owner of the amulet, and soon after her encounters.
1. Chapter 1

Over the Mountains and Under the Hills

 _"I am sending you this postcard, from the dark side of the moon, so you know I got here safely, and that I will be home soon."_

It wasn't a diamond ring, or a phone case, or even a wad of 10 dollar bills; it was just a necklace, a old worn out, leather-cord one. It had a bronze human head with strange bull horns prodding out of it. In no means to the average ladies eyes was it pretty. There were scratches and a tiny chip missing on the very bottom, as if it had been through a hell of some rough times; in sum, nobody would want it.  
But for some reason, Wendy kind of glanced carefully at her older brother, Alec to see what he was doing. The soot haired older sibling- by only 3 years mind you- was walking around the ragged motel room any bet looking for some sign of life that meant he could force Wendy out of the room instantly. When he turned his back from Wendy, she quickly and silently bent down beside the small garbage can on the right of the door and scooped out the necklace. She oddly felt as if that the amulet didn't deserve to be laying in that empty trash-can, that maybe it should be on someone- someone important.

"Man, you sure really know how to pick 'em, Wen." Alec snorted with a dry chuckle as he turned around. Before Alec finished turning around, she quickly shoved the amulet inside her beige raincoat's pocket, feeling surprisingly guilt. Wendy didn't know why she was feeling guilty, or why she had hid the amulet away from her brother, it wasn't like she had found Bilbo's sword Sting, or some nuclear launch codes for world domination- she just naturally as any sibling would have it, have something secret for herself- even some plain dull necklace.

"Yeah," She breathed with a similar chuckle, looking to the old carpet floor to avoid her brothers stare. "Well it was my turn to pick and this was the closest one, next time we'll stay somewhere nice, like VacationInn. How about that?"

"Now you're speaking my language sis." He grinned. Alec tossed his bundled jacket on to the queen bed beside him, looking around the room. A dissatisfied, uncomfortable straight line appeared on his lips stretching in length as he scanned the area of the room. "No, but seriously Wendy, doesn't this room seem kind of off to you?"

Wendy raised her brow, taking a fast glance around the room before her eyes landed back on her brother. "No, I'm not getting any bad vibe."

"Huh," He grunted. "Maybe it's cause you're just really weird."  
Despite being a ivory white, the room was well... rather roomy. The only problem she did have was the fact that it still had tension in the air. A residue of anger and hopelessness trying to escape the room. The younger sibling rolled her eyes tiredly. Alec leaned face first onto his bed, burying himself in the thin comforter. As he wiggled and moved against the cover Wendy took off her raincoat shaking off the heavy rain. She slipped her hand discreetly into the pocket, wrapping her fingers around the necklace and taking it out. Once more she transferred the little leathery possession into her jean pocket gently. As she did Alec's movements turned more upset and aggravated.

"Seriously what the hell?" He hissed, sticking his head up from the blanket in frustration. His chin length black hair was now messy and choppy, covering half of his left eye.

"What?" Wendy asked back, getting more and more annoyed with her stubbornly childish brother. She made her way to her bed- the one closest to the window and door, sitting down on it. Alec struggled against the covers, pushing and pulling at it. For the second he tugged, revealed just a plain- rather dirty- mattress, no blankets or sheets to cover it.

"Where the heck did the sheets go?" He complained. Wendy, peered closer before a unnecessary thought popped into her head. She craned her neck to her bedside, taking hold of the covers and pulling them back. Similar to her brothers, her bed was plain, no blankets or covers insight just a dusty old mattress.

"Man, who steals blankets." Her brother whined miserably. She rolled her eyes once more, Wendy was really starting to regret picking the motel room this time they should have just kept driving.

"The manager said the last two people here were two guys. I think a gay couple or something." Wendy suggested weak. Maybe the amulet she had found belonged to one of them, and that they had just misplaced it. Maybe they'd come back for it and she could talk to them. It was starting to get increasingly hard for Wendy to talk to people these past couple of months with her brother always hovering over her, acting like some scrawny bodyguard.

"Yeah, well if I ever see them I'm going to whoop their asses, people don't just steal blankets and get away with it." Wendy doubted he would attempt to beat them up, her brother was too much of a softie to even hurt a fly. Besides when she had talked to the manger, he had said that the two guys- possibly lovers- were big guys and that they rode a mint-conditioned black beast that roared like a lion. So Wendy really doubted her brother would fight them. But boy, just with the brief description of the two strangers, her desire to meet them skyrocketed. People naturally interested Wendy, she had loved her history classes and anthropology in secondary school, loved learning about people's challenges, hardships, their desires, and wishes, their sacrifices and swan songs. She loved it all, and stories gave that excitement and love to her. So even though her brother and parents always warned her about talking to strangers, treating her like some sort of child, she always wanted to hear somebodies stories. Because she knew, if you didn't then you would miss out on a story as great as General George Patton to Nelson Mandela's. That was something she was not willing to miss.

The thunder outside roared violently, snapping Wendy out of her muses. Alec got up, slipping his boots back on and trudging to the door. "I'm going to get us some blankets." He grumbled, walking out and closing the door. Wendy watched from the window as her brother stomped to the main building where they had checked in. She took her rare chance of isolation gratefully and pulled out the amulet. Shuffling her spine to the backside of the bed, she laid down, moving the leather lace around in her hand.

"What story do you have for me?" Wendy hummed to the amulet quietly. She studied the amulet, slowly pushing it around her slender fingers. There was nothing stunning or mysterious about it, the object dangling from the lace was just a worn bronze figure that had a couple of nicks and scratches in it. She didn't know why, and she asked herself for the third time that why she was so interested in it.

The necklace just sort of lured her towards it, as crazy as it sounded. The young girl just didn't know why? It was almost, unnatural.

"Thank God for managers," Alec said entering the room again with a thankful sigh. He was carrying layers upon layers of new white sheets and blankets, attempting to balance them all unsuccessfully in his arms. Wendy snapped out of her thought, her sea blue eyes trailing to Alec's hazel ones.

"So are you going to stop complaining now?" She asked hopefully.

"Oh no of course not." Alec remarked, throwing her portion of the sheets and blankets to her. It landed on her feet, and she put the amulet back in her pocket, swinging her legs off the bed and getting up. The mattress creaked in annoyance and she took the blankets, setting everything up like her mama had taught her.

In no time both Alec and Wendy were in their newly rented beds covered in blankets and sleeping. Alec rolled in his bed snoring loudly, his mouth hanging open against the pillow. Wendy on the other hand was having no such luck. She twisted and turned, attempting to find a suitable place on the bed that was comfy. With another shove to the blankets she pushed aside of her left. Misjudging her strength, Wendy slipped off the right side of the bed landing face first on the carpet floor in between the small section of the window wall and bed. In any other case Wendy would groan, get up and then proceed to go back to bed, or occasionally get a cup of water. But this time as her sleepy eyes opened to look at the carpet, she was meet with a splatter of glossy brownish red, that had the moon's rays bouncing off it. Hesitantly she dragged her index finger across it, the slightly moist but almost dry substance smudging on her digit.  
Dread sunk into Wendy and she held back a scream; it was blood. Not the nose-bleed dripping blood but the real possibly dead blood . With her other hand she cupped her mouth, trying to hold back a scream even further. This was blood, she was face first next to a dried puddle of blood, it wasn't even old blood for that matter. It was full on. maybe almost 16 hours old blood. What the hell had happened here with the last two people to use this room? Fight Club? Slowly, her heart pumping from the shock she got up, shaking. Her first thought should have been to wash off whoever's blood was on her hand, but instead she eyed her mattress. A puddle of blood that size near the bed would have had more, no doubt about it. So where was the rest?

Quietly, careful not to wake the sleeping elephant that was her brother, she peeled off the sheets and blankets. A bummer too because personally Wendy thought she had put them on pretty perfectly. Then she pulled off her flowery pillows laying them on the floor. The only light to guide her without tripping was, the mid moonlight sky accompanied by the glowing pale moon. Lastly was the mattress, her gut was telling her not to turn it around, to just put it back and go to sleep but her mind was telling her to figure out this gory mysterious. Grabbing both ends she heaved it up, twisting it carefully around.  
This time a terrified squeak did travel up her throat and escape, followed by the urge to puke. On the other side of the mattress, instead of the plain white dusty cotton works were a large splatter of blood, more than her own 5,7 height. It covered the whole middle length of the mattress and had smears across it as if someone had hurriedly tried to scrub it away. She was sleeping on a dead man's bed. Stumbling back, Wendy used the small round table for support. She grasp the wood tightly, shutting her eyes and counting to 10 slowly.

She was just dreaming, it was just a dream a very weird, very scary dream.

Disappointment and dread washed over her body when she opened them to the exact same scene. A bloody bed, her brother snoring unknown to the horrible discovery, and her shaking like a chicken. If there was one bloody mattress, what did that mean for the other? Wendy fell on her knees and slipped her head slowly under her brothers mattress. This time the blood was even closer and there was more. Smudged ungracefully in a rush of time.

"Oh my God." She gagged in a whispered horror. Frenzied she scooted out from under her brothers bed and got up inept. Without thinking she opened the motel room door and sped out, bare feet and all, with only her undexterous feet to keep her up. Her warm pale blue flannel long pj bottoms and her ivory white tank shirt clung to her as the rain and wind pounded against her. She wrapped her arms around her, hugging tightly and inelegantly stumbling along the gravel paved road uncoordinated.

Fresh blood. The mattresses had still even had the metallic smell of blood soaked into it.

She stumbled aimlessly across the motel lot. The rain pounded on her, drenching every bit of clothing and skin in wetness. Her feet scraped across sharp pebbles and stones stabbing the skin of her soles roughly. The tormented drenched lady stopped in the middle of the parking lot, doing the one thing any person in her situation would do; she puked. The bitter vile she coughed out stung her throat. She spat saliva with a hiss to the concrete, hugging her sides more protectively.

It wasn't like Wendy hadn't seen blood before, it was just the state and situation in which the blood was in. Heck it was practically her profession, she had come out of university with a masters in forensic criminology. But this was different, this blood wasn't in a lab, or a coroner's office, hospital, or even a crime scene. This was in her own backyard- not literally- staring her right in the face yet hidden from plain sight. She was both terrified but also excited. Out of every person in the world, she; Wendy Parrish, came stumbling ungracefully into a situation that was so rare and out of this world.

And oh boy, did she want to figure the mystery out.

Dragging her hand along her lips, she rubbed off any extra puke that might have stayed and took off wobbling towards her motel room. She scrambled in, avoiding the intimidating stare of the dark mattress, and took the pile of blankets and covers laying in a messy bundle on the floor. She threw it on her mattress, which had the clean- non-blood side facing the ceiling, covering up it and it's nasty secrets. Taking the welcome mat from the door, she placed it over the bloody patch on the carpet between the wall and bed carefully.

Then finally she slumped against the hard-wooden chair, next to the equally small round table and closed her eyes exhausted.

 _"For today I held our planet, Between the fingers on my hand, And leant there's more stars out here, Than our earth has grains of sand."_

* * *

"My God you're a freak." Someone said from above Wendy. She cracked open her eyes, tiredly rubbing them. Her back screamed sore to the bone after sleeping in a stiff position for God knows how long. Hovering over her was Alec. He had a smug frown on his lips and looked to be all dressed and ready.

"What?" Wendy groaned, getting up slowly. She cracked her back with a grunt and scratched her ear dazed.

"Sleeping on a chair?" Alec questioned. "What is a bed not good enough for you anymore?"

"Haha, very funny." She mumbled sarcastically. "What, is a comb not good enough for you anymore?" She taunted back, notioning to his mess of ebony French fry curlies that he called hair on his head.

"Shut up." He complained, trying to seem confident and not at all offended. Wendy grinned maliciously, eyeing her scary bed. Alec hadn't touched a single bit of the bed nor welcome mat for that matter. She was internally happy for that strong agreement her and her brother had made for no touching each others stuff when they were 8.

"Get your stuff in the car, I'll be ready in 5." She explained. Alec as usual stuck to their daily routine, grabbing both their single duffel bags, letting Wendy take her clothes before. He walked out the motel towards their green jeep, throwing everything in the back. Wendy changed quickly, throwing her soaking wet pj's into the back and trekked to the main building to pay out.

The manager, a nice surly old man stood at the desk writing down a sentence of letters. "Uh hi." Wendy spoke awkwardly. The old man, Ralph, looked up a bright smile stretching across his face. It kind of reminded her of her Da's. "I'm here to check out."

They completed the payment easily, Ralph handing her a pamphlet of all the greatest places to visit in South Dakota. She sheepishly thanked him, folding the paper neatly into her jacket pocket, along where the calming amulet was stored. Wendy turned to leave, but paused and turned her heel.

"Um sir." She said.

"Ralph." Ralph corrected warmly.

She remained silent for a moment, awkward of saying his name. "Uh, Ralph." She corrected, allowing herself to continue when he nodded. "Do you know who was in my motel room last?"

"Uh... no I'm sorry darling, but they paid only with cash and didn't give me their names."

"Oh," She faltered, trying to mask her disappointment, now how was she going to figure out the blood situation and amulet?

"But like I said yesterday, they rode a beauty of a car. She roared so clearly it was like a purr." He mused. "Oh and the shorter one had a old leather jacket, must've been older than the man."

She nodded gratefully in consideration. At least that was something.

"Why do you ask anyways hun?" Ralph asked innocently. Her eyes shot up, widening anxiously.

"Uh... just wondering that's all."

"Well, if you wanna take my advice, you should be glad they're gone." He whispered. Wendy raised her brow, curious.

She leaned in closer, so profoundly interested. "Why?" She whispered back.

"One day they came back all bloody and bruised, thought they'd be apart of some gang. But no, they ain't any gangs 'er." He explained. "Then two other men, scruffy looking fellas, went to the room and shut the door. I didn't think any of it, but for 10 minutes nothing happened. That was until the two scruffy guys came out and ran to their car speeding off like two squealing pigs. The two tall, handsome fellas didn't come out of that motel for a day."

"Did you check up on them?" Wendy whispered, finding herself leaning in a bit to much. Ralph didn't seem to care. He shook his head. "No, when they rented the room they asked that non of my maids or my staff come to their room."

"Why?" She asked.

Ralph shrugged. "Beats me. They're just bad omens, not good people to be around- I could feel it."

"Feel it?" Wendy questioned slowly, starting to think that Ralph's judgment and mind was starting to wear away.

"Yer, once that black beast of theirs came rolling into town, 4 people had already died. Mauled by some big dog. One person each day until they left."

Wendy leaned back, it was just a coincidence, those two men weren't bad luck charms. And what had those other two men done when they weren't into the motel room? Why did they not come out of the motel room for two days? A multitude of questions screamed in her ears, she blinked rapidly rubbing at her temples carefully. Just take in one thing at a time.

"Thank you Ralph, it was nice meeting you." She forced a smile, saying goodbye and turned to leave. This was the first exciting thing she had done in her life. Every since she was born, she had taken the safe path, the boring one. But the safe road was not special, it wasn't exciting, it wasn't wild, it was just a routine. And she wanted to be wild, Wendy wanted to go on an adventure.

Wendy was positive this was her adventure.

"Wait!" Ralph said, out loud inside the building. Wendy stopped in her tracks on the welcome mat for what seemed like the third time this day. Her eyes trailed around to meet the wild old man's. Ralph paused, gaining his bearings. _"When you hear that engine, you'll never forget it."_

There was a brief moment of silence between the two. He might be a little strange, but Wendy didn't doubt for a second his words. She choked light chuckle and forced a smile instead, nodding solemnly before turning around. Slipping her hand into her jacket pocket, she took the strange bronze amulet out, raising it to eye level. This amulet, that motel room, someone's blood. Those were her chances of adventure. As morbid as it may have sounded, this was practically apart of her job. Smiling internally to herself she dunked her head, putting the necklace carefully over her head and slipping down her neck. It hung comfortably against her collar bone and chest, resting in a place that seemed all to natural for it. She wasn't a women of the unnatural, she was a woman that needed cold hard proof of something. But even a realist needed something to make them an optimist once in awhile.

For her, it was the necklace, her chance at doing something thrilling; by going on a long and possibly dangerous wild goose over to the jeep, she jumped in the driver seat, starting the engine and backing out of the parking lot.

"So what's for breakfast?" Alec hummed happily, as he returned his attention onto his younger sister. "Diner?"

It took them roughly 20 minutes but soon they were sitting on separate smaller stools against a old fashion counter in a diner. A old jukebox, restored, was quietly producing old rock music in the background. A plump middle aged waitress was pouring a cup of dark roast coffee for Alec, in front of the pair. "Some weather huh?" The waitress said kindly, attempting to get a conversation going. The weather the past couple of months basically everywhere in the world was about as scrambled as scrambled eggs. It was raining almost constantly in Australia, Egypt had snow and earthquakes were rattling Russia like it had nothing better to do. Some people were calling it the end of the world, but heck, what did they know? People were always saying it was the end. Personally Wendy secretly believed, that the only way the world could end would be if people stopped loving families unconditionally in self-sacrifice. But hey, if she happened to fall victim of one of the many natural disasters happening around the world, then she'd accept it.

The waitress, who's scratched name tag read Lillian, put down the coffee pot, handing us our breakfast and eggs. Alec happily dung into his bacon and hash browns, adoring every bit of his food.  
"Is there some new fashion statement going on that I'm unaware of?" Lillian asked. Wendy looked up from her food confused. "Pardon?" She asked, swallowing her tater-tots. Lillian gestured to the amulet hanging from Wendy's neck. "That, I saw it a day or two ago."

Wendy's eyes widened, peeked in interest. "Really, who was wearing it?"

"A man wearing a leather jacket. He and his tall partner came in about everyday for a week. I think they were brothers." Lillian explained.

"Brothers? Why do you think that?" She asked, leaning in more, now totally distracted.

"They bickered like siblings. I'm the middle of 3 siblings, and boy did they sound exactly the same as when Dad gave one of us money."

Siblings, so they were brothers. It made sense, they would probably doing the same thing her and Alec were doing; traveling across America with each other.

"Did you happen to catch their names?" Wendy asked, hoping Lillian had somehow. To her disappointment Lillian shook her head. "No hun, sorry." And Lillian genuinely seemed sorry.

They left little clues, like breadcrumbs trails. As if sending a message saying  
 _"Come find me"_

Wendy's shoulders fell and she stared down sulking at her plate. Lillian the waitress, looked over her shoulder warily, before leaning in to Wendy. "It's not my place to eavesdrop, but when those two men were here, they talked about some job they were doing."

"Do you know what?"

Lillian shook her head, "No, couldn't quite catch that. Although they did mention a name, Margo Fuller, that ring a bell to you?" The young girl shook her head but nodded in understanding, grateful for the information. _"All I know is that they're proof that you can be selfless for your brother."_

At that time, Alec looked up from his plate satisfied. The diner bell rung from in the kitchen and Lillian went to go check it. "Whatcha talking about?" Alec asked. It was stupid, to ask Alec of this. But she couldn't just hope that he'd go along with it, totally and informatively out of the blue. She'd find Margo Fuller and another breadcrumb would be found. Wendy paused briefly for a second. She turned to meet Alec's eyes.

"Do you want to go on an adventure?"

"We are already on one Wen. We're on a road trip."

"No, I mean like a real, real one."

"Are you asking me to be your Sam to your Frodo?"

Wendy was pretty sure they were more of a Merry and Pippin, Sam and Frodo seemed to be the two men she was looking for. "Well yes, I know this is stupid and you probably think I'm being rash but I-"

"Yes, the answer is yes. Wendy let's go on an adventure."

Wendy could only stare stunned at Alec's answer. She had totally not expected Alec to agree on her terms and be whisked away on some rash gut feeling she was following.

"R-really?" She sputtered, eyes comically wide. At any other time Alec would have threw some sarcastic joke into the conversation, but instead he grinned. He was her older brother, and it was his job to take care of her. If whatever she really wanted to do would make her happy then well, was there even a decision. The pair had grown up on the very edge of Clearwater, British Columbia. Their backyard had been a wide green field and large, never-ending rolling hills. This would be a piece of cake.

"Oh my God, Alec thank you!" She cried out happily, lunging for a tight embrace, ignoring the fact that they were both seated on small round stools. Alec let out a laugh of amusement, he hugged her back and Lillian the waitress appeared again, cooing softly to herself at the sight.

"So where do we go first, Holmes?" Alec hummed, getting out of the embrace and taking a large bite out of this pancake.

"Firstly we need to find a girl named Margo Fuller. Can you do that?"

"Can Luke Skywalker defeat the Empire?"

After that, the pair paid Lillian handsomely, leaving the diner and strolling over to their unique green jeep. As they left, Lillian couldn't help smile as she tucked the wad of bills the pair had given her as a tip into her apron pocket. In the past week she had meet two pairs of siblings that would do anything for each other.

Those things didn't come around as often anymore. It was anything but simple.

 _"So now the life I ran from, doesn't seem like such a wreck. When the town that I grew up in, isn't more than just a speck."_

* * *

"So get this," Alec said speaking up. Wendy glanced at him then back at the moving road, not wanting to get distracted too much while driving. Her Pa had always taught her that driving wasn't a right, it was a responsibility. Alec shifted his laptop slightly in an angle Wendy could see. He licked his dry lips before speaking. "Our mystery person, Margo Fuller, well apparently she had been missing less than 2 weeks ago."

Wendy frowned, why had the waitress told her about a past victim? Where did that fit in anywhere with the two strangers, her and her brother were chasing after.

"Okay... so where does that fit in?" She mumbled slow ingenuously.

"Well, apparently she had been the fifth kidnapped person of that week," Wendy raised her brows, surprised etched across her face. Five in a week? That almost never happened, criminals weren't that rash or cocky for that matter. "She had been missing for a day before- drumroll please, two disclosed strangers had found and rescued her, and any of the other people who had survived."

Could those two humble heroes be the two men they were chasing? Was that what the waitress had meant when she had heard them talking about a job? Alec's eyes trailed across the screen, "It says here Margo Fuller was the last victim to have been kidnapped the police guessed- bla bla bla. Oh here! Reportedly all Margo remembers before getting kidnapped is 'hearing a low growl and red eyes' then she was knocked out and woke up in a dark cave." Alec said reading off the screen. He didn't say anything for a couple of moments, Wendy glanced at Alec curiously to see he was still reading the online article. She turned her attention back to the road.

"Ah bingo!" He exclaimed successfully, tapping the screen with his index finger. An odd amount of excitement surged in Wendy at hearing her brother's success. "Address is right here!"

"Great, what is it?" She beamed.

Soon enough, the homey jeep was parked outside a traditional suburban brick house, two large old Oaks resting in the front yard. The siblings got out in unison and stalked to the cherry red door. Alec rang the bell dropping his hands to his side. The door swung open after a dozen seconds and a medium built Hispanic middle aged man opened it. The siblings both gave him a friendly, peaceful smile and he returned it back.

"Hi, is Margo Fuller here?" Wendy asked softly. The man shifted.

"Yes she is, I'm her father. What can I do for you?"

Wendy and Alec exchanged a glance, trading thoughts internally. Wendy was the first to turn with a large closed smile. "We're two Canadian reporters who hear about your daughters shocking story and was so inspired to come and talk to her, y'know, for our article."

Margo's father's shoulders loosened in relief but still remained firm. "Margo's very tired, maybe she can do the interview another day?"

Again the siblings turned to each other, their mouths both open ready to say something. Instead a small, soft voice that skipped and repeated words spoke out.

"I-it's o-oka-ay Dad, I-I'll ta-talk to th-em."

Both the father's and siblings heads directed to the voice. A small petite Hispanic girl, with curly dark hair and bright brown eyes was standing at the bottom of the oak staircase. Her father turned fully around protectively. The little girl tipped her head down demurely, than back up, this time hardening her expression with courage.

Alec hadn't seen anything more inspirational in his life than that.

"Are you sure, Margo?" He asked. "They can come another day?"

Margo shook her head, signalling that she wanted to talk now. Her Dad followed through and let Wendy and Alec slip inside. They took off their shoes and followed Margo up the stairs silently, to what was her room. It was a calming brown room, a small twin sized bed on the side beside a mini chalked-filled bookcase. Two small oak chairs were set up in the middle of the room facing the bed, as if this were a regular routine she had grown accustomed to in the past couple of days.

It was a thought that made Alec's stomach twist.

The poor girl's privacy had been violated, not only had she been kidnapped- dragged away from her family, but now even though she was home, she still was being forced against her will to do things.  
Margo walked over to her bed, where she sat on the edge and gestured for the siblings to close the door and sit down. Wendy closed the door sitting down on the creaky oak chair beside Alec.

"We're both really sorry for interrupting your day," Wendy began, "but we just have a few questions for you to answer for our articl-"

"Y-you are-aren't re-reporters." Margo interrupted. The blood in both siblings chilled in unison, and their faces fell pale.

"W-w-what?" Alec sputtered, blinking rapidly. A anxious, nervous smile broke out and he tilted his head slightly.

"O-Oh come o-on, y-you guys don't eve-even have a pencil o-or pa-paper." Margo stated unimpressed. The chill in the siblings blood turned suddenly hot and their faces heated a cherry red.

Wendy rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "Wow, we seriously didn't think this through." She mumbled under her breath.

"Y-ye-yeah, talk a-about it." Margo sassed rolling her eyes. "O-okay, bu-ut really, what-s you-your deal?"

Wendy breathed, slouching her shoulders and playing with her sweaty palms rather intently. Her hands trailed up to the amulet hidden under her dark gray tee, squeezing it instinctively for support. Margo's eyes snapped to the amulet clinging onto the sight tightly, she hitched a breath.

"Wh-where d-did y-y-you g-get that?" She asked suddenly interested, her speech impediment growing worse as her heartbeat picked up and her emotions grew rash.

"That's what we're hear to talk to you about." Wendy explained, ducking her head and slipping the amulet it. Carefully she handed Margo the necklace and the child took it, holding it as if she was carrying the most important object in the world.

"A-are they o-ok-kay?" She asked suddenly, after looking at the necklace. Her voice was laced with worry and concern as her eyes directed the same bundle of deep emotion. She spoke as if she was related in blood to the two men, as if she had spent years of her childhood growing up with them.

"That's what we're trying to find out, Margo." Alec said softly. "We're trying to find them, and we need your help."

The girl's eyes grew deep, her lips forming a straight firm line. Simply, she nodded.

"Okay."

Almost 20 minutes later, Margo had explained her story. She had been walking home from a friend's house at night who only lived a block away. Margo was halfway home, crossing river where creepily through the treelines she had heard a low growl; followed by a set of dark blood red eyes glowing through the blackness. Quickly Margo did the only thing she could think of in a situation like that and ran. Only the thing- which Margo had explained at the time looked like a black blur, caught up to the young girl knocking her out. She then explained, how later after gaining consciences, she woke to a dark and cold setting only realizing after a moment that she was stuck in a hole in some cave. In that same cave she had heard other victims screaming out for help. Some had been there a couple of days longer and was growing weak by the minute. Some unfortunate souls had actually passed away in those dirty damp holes. Margo was sure she was going to die in there, she had said that the last words to her parents had been 'goodbye' and that those were not the last words she had wanted to tell her parents. When all hope had been lost and the black blur had reappeared again, this time ready to feed on the dead, bloated and rotting remains of the green-tinted corpses, a loud bang had echoed through the cave. Margo remembered hearing a loud inhuman roar that almost burst her eardrums, through loud gunshots and howls the noise and commotion finally had died down a little too suddenly. Whatever had happened above the pit had ended, and Margo was sure that the black blur had killed whoever was up there. But to her utter astonishment and surprise, two men emerged from above her shining a bright ray of light at her. The tallest one had jumped down the hole, which for his height didn't seem that deep, but to her seemed far to tall to climb out of for her physical state. He landed beside her, whispering multiple times that she would be okay. Margo at the time had tears of joy and an overwhelming amount of fear she had been hoarding the past couple of days streaming down her face. The tall man gently picked her up, handling her like a precious package and climbed out of the hole. There she was transferred to the man with the leather jacket and amulet. He held onto her tightly with the same gentleness the taller man prior had had with her. She remembered wrapping her arms around the man's neck and burying herself in the warm leather of his jacket shoulder. Margo, the amulet man, taller man, and the other lone survivor; a women in her twenties all rushed out the cave. Everything after that was hazy and blurry to Margo, starvation and lack of water was what the doctors had said as to why she couldn't remember. Though the things she did remember despite telling nobody, even her parents; were being carefully placed in the back of a black car beside the women, whispered words of encouragement from the taller of the two men, and then hearing the men speak to each other quietly as they drove to the hospital.

"What did they say?" Wendy said, not realizing that she was on the edge of the creaky chair. Margo frowned sadly troubled.

"I-I w-as bl-blanking o-ou-out a lot a-at the t-t-time, sorry." She stuttered, genuinely sorry. Wendy hid her disappointment from the girl, shrugging it off.

"It's okay," She said. "But is there anything else you can remember? Anything that can get us a step closer to finding them?"

"N-no, bu-but they were t-talking about s-somethin-thing l-like a case."

"A case?" Alec asked confused. The girl nodded equally stumped.

"I-I do-on't know where. B-but they did me-mention a man named B-Bob, I think." She explained. Wendy nodded, pursing her lips. Bob, she had a first name for someone who knew the breadcrumb men. Now all she needed was a last name, it couldn't be that hard... right? "I-if you re-really are t-telling the truth, a-about trying to find t-the pe-people who saved me. Don't give up. I need you to not give up, for me." The last sentence or so was spoken perfectly, with ease. No stutter or break in words.

It was as if her mind forced itself to perfect those words, in that certain sentence, for this exact conversation. "They g-give me hope, sh-show me that the-there are h-heroes."

"They're brothers." Wendy informed softly. The girl took a second to register the new information. She nodded, smiling faintly at the necklace as if the idea of them being brothers made sense.

"I get it now." Margo said.

"What do you get?" Alec asked.

Margo looked up from the necklace. "W-why they stood s-so close, wh-why they con-constantly a-asked e-each other if the-they were okay. H-how they lo-looked so ti-tired but kept on go-going. _People only keep on going like that, f-for their family."_

The trio of people didn't talk for a couple of moments, taking in all the new information they all were able to receive. Finally Wendy and Alec stood up. Margo followed, squeezing the amulet tightly, sucking in every last bit of feeling, smell and memory she could memorize. This was something her heroes owned. This was a symbol reassuring her that her heroes were real, that selfless heroes existed. She handed back the bronze amulet saddened that she had to give it back. Deep down she knew, that these two other siblings needed this more than her. She knew her symbol of hope was in good hands, they had a mission and she wouldn't be the wall to stop them.

"Thank you Margo, you don't know how much we appreciate your help." Alec thanked her graciously. Wendy had the amulet back on, Margo grinned, "I-I think I-I mi-might know."

The siblings turned to leave, Alec opened the door and left the room. Wendy followed taking a step forward.

"A-an-nd M-mi-miss," Wendy turned back to Margo, at her soft voice. Margo looked Wendy straight in the eyes. "Wh-when yo-you do fin-find them, t-tell th-them, I s-say thanks."

Wendy nodded silently, a small smile attempting to break the surface. She restrained her smile to a tiny one, nodding briefly. "I will."

With that she walked after Alec, who was already outside thanking Margo's father on the porch. Wendy walked to their jeep, stopping only when a unnaturally cold gust of wind blew a newspaper article down in front of her feet. The temperature dropped suddenly, and she rubbed her hands up and down her arms. Frowning at the article, Wendy bent down picking it up. Four words were bolded, big and in the middle of paper, directing her to it.

 _David Peterson- Indiana, UnionPort_

It was an ad for a mechanic named David Peterson. A man that lived in Unionport, not even inside the state. Wendy felt oddly drawn to it, as if some work of nature was trying to direct her to the Breadcrumb Men. Back then, when she had found the article laying at her feet, staring hopefully up at her she had thought God had been involved. That even he wanted her to find them. But now, she realized that those men had friends, and those friends whether alive or not were still looking out for them. Fumbling with the article, she folded it neatly into her pocket looking up. There across the street stood a middle aged dirty blond women. She had a warm smile that stuck out from her ghostly white face which oddly reminded her of a bartender. The lady wore faded plaid and had scruffy looking jeans. Wendy swore she could see the reminisce of powerfully burns on the lady but just as she blinked, the lady was gone. As if a apparition or illusion for Wendy's mind. There was something off about the men, something very unique. Wendy blinked dazed. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to meet Alec's stare.

"You okay?" He asked. It took a second for her to register. She nodded blinking once more. Alec bit his lip in defeat. "Well, as much information as we got, we still don't know where the men you're trying to find are."

"Actually..." Wendy mumbled, pulling out the article from her pocket. She unfolded it and put it up to eye level. "I think I might know."

 _"And although my life feels tiny, as I look back at our home, I've realized we're the only ones, who don't live it alone."_

* * *

"Wendy we're going off a hunch, are you sure that's not rash?" Alec said carefully, as she turned a corner on the road.

"No." Wendy hummed, she centered the wheel glancing at Alec with a shake to her head.

"Are you sure?" He said again, emphasizing the sure. "100% positive?"

There was a brief silence as Alec stared waiting for Wendy's answer.

"Like, 99%." She mumbled obviously lying.

Alec threw up his hands, rolling his eyes in disbelief. "Oh my God, you don't even know if this is going to work!"

"Of course I do!" She protested back defensively. In all honesty she didn't, but Alec didn't need to know that.

The arguing didn't stop.

As the terrain turned rocky and the miles to their destination hit 971, the siblings finally made a stop. They both wobbled out of the car after an 15 hour drive; added the pit stops, and rented a hotel room, this time being of Alec's wise choice. They were staying in a room in one of the many popular VactionInn's. A beige paint-coat layered the walls and a medium sized TV sat on top of a cabinet-looking mini fridge. A strange metallic sun wall clock was hung above the first bed, closest to the bathroom while the window curtains were plastered with strange flower shaped blobs. Wendy didn't mind the bad designing of the room neither did Alec for that matter. She'd take bad-fashion over blood stained mattresses any day. Still, the room lacked a homey sense, not like the other one. It didn't have a kitchen or a proper table. It was a room that screamed 'Hi and goodbye!'. Both siblings tried, aggravated and weary of each other entered the room. Alec made a beeline for the bed, sinking into the soft comforters and covers that VactionInn had provided. He let out a pleasured moan giving Wendy the chance to roll her eyes without him knowing.

"I'm going to wash my clothes." She informed Alec. Wendy was pretty sure he didn't care.

"Fuck yourself." Alec mumbled through the covers. Wendy's assumptions were confirmed.

"Love you too." She mumbled dully, taking her single duffel bag and leaving the room. She took the elevator down the building all the way to the main floor, where instead of heading towards the gray door that read Laundry, in both braille and letters, she stalked out the door. Previously, as they had been trying to find the VactionInn they had drove by a Do-It-Yourself Laundry Mat. A place Wendy wanted to go too. She walked around the block into the worn down, almost empty blue room. Two dozen or so washing machines were lined up in the middle back to back. On the wall were drying mats lined across similar to the washing machines. Besides Wendy there were three other people there. A tired teenage boy who looked like he hated his job and was about to die of boredom, a gruff man wearing ragged and dirty clothes possibly below the poverty-line, and lastly a plump older lady who looked the opposite like she had a little too much money to spare. Wendy made her way to one of the washing machines, opening it carefully trying to not make a sound and attract attention to the bright fiery red haired girl. She dumped all her dirty clothes in the machine, sprinkling it up with Tide and closing the lid. She slipped two grimy coins in a slot pushing them in and starting the machine. It burst to life with a puff, before slowly picking up its pace.

The lone sibling took that as a chance to pull up a seat and sit down. She leaned forward, resting her right cheek on her palm and elbow against the metal surface of the machine. She stared lazily out the window blowing a strand of her red hair out of her eyes. Cars flew past and people sped walked by oblivious to her observing. It reminded her a lot of back when she was younger, around 16-17 serving coffee at one of her Ma's friends diners. The diner hadn't be busy since it was on a back trail of gravel as well as was in her hometown of Clearwater, which unsurprisingly was not a popular place in British Columbia. It was quiet, where everybody knew everybody's secrets. You'd see the same people walking down the street, off to do the same thing. It was extremely uneventful and even then, Wendy had found herself leaning against the marble counter, head propped up on her palm staring dully out the wide windows. Hoping that maybe, just maybe she could do something with her life, an adventure that would be allowed to proudly tell her grandchildren's about when she got older.

Back to the present, here she was doing the exact same thing- muscle memory and all- only wondering this time, if this was her adventure. She was snapped out of her daze when the machine under her beeped loudly in alarm, shuttering to a stop. The clothes were done being washed, half the job was complete. Wendy lifted the metal hood, taking two handfuls of dripping clothes and stuffed it into drying machine. She closed the hatch to the machine, turning it on again. As she did the hairs on her neck stood up. A strange set of eyes were locked on hers, she was positive. Slowly Wendy craned her eyes to look out the window. Exactly in the same clothing as before was the plaid-wearing lady standing watching her silently from the other side of the road. The confused sibling came up with only two reasons: either she had a stalker or she was slowly going crazy. Both didn't settle Wendy's anxiousness. Wendy locked eyes with the strange blond women for a moment before out of nowhere, her legs kicked into gear. Wendy bolted for the exit, hearing the faint protests of the teenage employee. She ignored his feeble voice and ran across the street evading a incoming car by inches. The car blared its horn and the man inside it yelled profanities at her. She stuck her hands out in apology before sprinting towards the women. But as a truck past her by Wendy was meet with nobody- again. Her feet fell short and she slowed down to a stop in the exact spot the lady had just been moments before.

"What the hell?" She whispered to herself, looking around the street wildly. Passerby's raised brows at her but continued walking, off to wherever their presence was needed.

"Miss, your clothes!" The teenage boy yelled from across the street at the steps of the Laundry Mat. Wendy stayed in the lady's previous spot stumped and confused. In defeat she trekked the walk of shame back to the Laundry Mat, only before smelling the odd combination of rotten eggs and whiskey.

 _"That sometimes even shooting stars send pieces down to earth. When their solitary beauty, starts to cost more than it's worth."_

* * *

"Hi, David Peterson?" Alec asked politely. The middle aged man, with greasy hands staring at the young siblings tilted his head to the right. His eyebrows were knitted together and a look of puzzlement crossed his face. He wiped his black oily hands on a worn rag, cleaning them the best he could. "Yes, and who are you?"

"I'm Alec," Alec motioned to himself, then Wendy. "and this is my younger sister Wendy."

David eyed them curiously, "What can I do for you?"

"We'd like to talk about this," Wendy said pulling the amulet out from under her shirt and shows it to him. The man's eyes softened and were filled with compassion and thanks. It was at that moment, Wendy knew she had come to the right place.

"Let's go somewhere private." David said. David tucked the rag into his pocket and stepped outside, shutting the door behind him. He walked down the newly renovated porch and the siblings followed him into the backyard. A old sturdy tree was in the corner of the yard accompanied by a classic wood slab swing. David motioned them to the two deck chairs they had beside their barbecue and the group sat down. Wendy instinctively took off the amulet handing it to David.

"We're trying to find them." She said simply. Something clicked in David and he looked up from the amulet.

"How long?" He asked. Alec seemed to get the question.

"Close to 5 days." Alec explained.

David forced a dry smile. "5 days closer to what I could get. Only a couple of days ago I was coming back from camping with a couple of my buddies when we drove into Muncie. Decided to all stay at a motel; looked harmless enough, had nice food, played a bit of poker there, everything was good. That was until someone hit me and my friends over the head and stuffed us in a walk-in fridge."

Alec and Wendy gapped in horror. A fridge?

"Whoever ran that place decided that pork tenderloins weren't satisfying enough."

A morbid possibly satanic thought popped into Wendy's head, and she put two together. "You mean..."

David nodded. "Yup, next on the menu was us. Actual living- breathing human beings. I thought I was toasted- pun not intended- tried to phone my wife but the cell-lines were blocked. Everything was going down hill from there, we couldn't get out."

Wendy felt a but coming on. "But...?"

"They came." David finished. "Two tall men, one wearing leather, another with brown hair to his chin. I think they came in twice to help us, but someone- something- tried to stop them. Anyhow the last time they came, they opened the locked fridge door and got us out. Me and my buddies ran, we thought about staying to make sure nobody was still inside that wicked motel but thought better and phoned the police instead when our cells became usable."

"Do you know where the two men went through?" Wendy prompt. David shook his head, and Wendy couldn't hide the look of disappointment and hopelessness. "When the police and I got there, the whole motel was clear, no body parts cooking in the soup- nothing. It was like it hadn't existed at all. Just a figment of my imagination. But I know what I saw there, despite what the police says. Those two men saved everybody's hide, didn't ask for anything in return, didn't even get their names." As he said that, a happy shrilled laugh sounded in the trios ears and they turned in the direction of the sound. A small blond haired little girl came barreling towards them. She jumped into David's outstretched arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her head in the crook of his shoulder.

"Like I said before," He said softly, rocking the child through muscle memory. "They saved everybody's lives that day. _I've got a family, I've got a daughter, and a wife because of them."_

This was starting to be an adventure with many intravenous dips. But Wendy liked that. She just was doubting that there was an end. The little girl buried in her father's strong embrace, twisted her head shyly around. "Hi." She squeaked to the siblings. Her big hazel eyes gleamed with a innocence that could only be corrupted with the absent love of her father. Not only had those two men saved the life of David, but also the potential future life of his daughter. One life isn't just saved by a miracle, dozens are possibly hundreds. Every person was connected like a domino effect, and when one fell all the others did too. A death that came to early erase the possible future of people meeting, getting married, breaking up, being happy, being free. How one life can mean so much to the others who don't even know the person. The two men, she and Alec were pursuing had allowed all of that to continue. Whether in some big black blur or crazy cannibal situations they had impacted said victims profoundly. And oh boy, did she want to meet these men.

"Hi." Wendy whispered, smiling faint. The siblings thanked David for their short talk and soon was on their way, driving down a long road, not a single car in sight.

"Hey Wen," Alec said breaking the silence as they drove. Wendy raised an eyebrow, turning her head ever so slightly. A stop sign past them by.

"Yeah?"

"What are we going to do after this ends, and I don't mean this little search I mean the roadtrip." Alec explained softly. "Are we going to go back to Clearwater?"

"Do you want to?" The younger sibling asked. Alec looked out the passenger window, watching the trees fly by, inclining down into a shallow creek.

"No."

"Well neither do I." Wendy added supportively. The black haired brother turned to his polar opposite, not trying to hide his surprise.

"Really?" He was sure Wendy would have wanted to go back, even for just a little bit. To pay her respects and settle some problems there.

Wendy nodded. "I haven't wanted to go back since Ma and Pa... the fire.." She trailed off. Alec nodded his head solemnly in understanding. His parents deaths 5 months back had been hard on both of them. To them it had seemed like the end of the world. No person can deny that at some point in their life, they thought their loved ones wouldn't leave them. Even realist thought that, because at the back of everyone's mind subconsciously there is a repeat of words mumbling 'it won't happen, not to me anyways' and when it did happen, that person's eyes were opened. Wendy had always been the person in the family to believe purely in that, but when they had stood outside a burning house that lit up the dark, dark sky like a bright bonfire, Wendy's world had came crashing down. She had mumbled 3 words that rang through Alec's mind constantly, repeating over and over again:

 **"I'm not ready."**

And what hurt Alec the most was that he couldn't help her. All he could do was cling to her tightly, as the firefighters sprayed at the burning house in futile, sirens wailing over the mountains and under the hills. So when Wendy had asked Alec to go on some crazy strange adventure in that diner in South Dakota he had agreed straight away. Because if there was a chance that her mind could be somewhere else for a bit, then he had to take it. It was the only thing he could do for her. She clung onto things tightly, their parents, the now destroyed and charred pieces of what they once called home, and the amulet. All the things she clung onto were her anchors, and with two of the anchors gone, she needed another.

"We can settle down." Alec suggested speaking honestly. "Buy a house, get jobs. Both of us have finished university, why not give it a try?"

"Where?" She asked.

"Anywhere you want."

Wendy paused for a moment, taking her glued eyes off the road and looking to her brother. "How about South Dakota?"

Alec didn't need to ask why, he had already known the second she mumbled that state. It was where she had found her new anchor, the amulet. Maybe not in the exact town but somewhere in South Dakota.

"Okay, it's settle. After this we'll go to South Dakota. Just me and you."

Wendy smiled at him and he smiled back. But the moment was too perfect. And as she slowly turned her eyes back to the road, an old rusty car came barreling straight towards them. The rusty oncoming car's headlights reflected in both the siblings eyes and with a loud metal crashing grind both cars collided head on with each other. The siblings heads were jerked violently forward, barely avoiding the broken window glass that came flying at them. Two ivory white airbags came flying out from the dash and steering wheel knocking their heads back against the chair-rest. Alec choked out a shrilled yell, the back of his neck screaming in pain. His eyesight blurred at random intervals but remained miraculously wake. Through the shooting pain, he pushed aside the airbag that was in contact with his face and attempted to turned to Wendy. His neck argued otherwise and he stopped mid-motion. Instead he craned his eyes the best he could. Wendy's face was buried in the ivory airbag, her eyes closed and sickeningly motionless. Something dawned quickly on Alec, if she didn't move sooner or later the airbag might suffocate her.

Adrenaline pumped through Alec's body as he tried to move his arms. He had to help her, he had to help his little sister. He tried desperately to raise his arms, but it was like he had been frozen. More tears welt in his eyes, he had witnessed his parents death, and now soon his sister's? Alec let out a loud wailed sob through his dry throat, pleading to God or whoever was listening to save his sister. Through his wails, the air around chilled. Faintly, as both car's alarms screamed in his ears he could hear a barely present wheezing sound. Alec's mouth snapped shut as he watched in amazement as the airbag crushed against Wendy's face was slowly deflating. If he had known anything in his life, it was that airbags didn't just deflate that quickly. It grew smaller and smaller in seconds, soon giving Wendy the space to breathe could now see her chest beating up and down frantically. The bronze horned amulet hanging around her neck was jammed into the airbag, puncturing it. Alec was stuck with awe, the amulet's horns at impact had hit the airbag and made a hole. He still had a chance to help his sister. With more hope, Alec tried to move his arms, this time letting out a determined scream. After seconds of nothing he tried again, and again. Nothing happened again and he ignored the pain that came from his arms stubborn to help his little sister. The chilled air, got cooler and the window remained on the passenger window and front chilled around, icing up. It scared Alec slightly, but he tried to pay no attention. The smell of rotten eggs and whiskey filled the jeep and he felt a strange invisible presence, almost like a hand lifting his arms out from the bent metal. The presence pulled out his arms, and he instantly lunged for his sister. Pushing aside the completely deflated airbag and pulling her out of the jeep along with him. They tumbled out, Wendy falling like a rag-dog onto Alec.

He had done it, the Fates had allowed him to keep his sister. It was a miracle; God's work. Just as his luck soared high, it instantly came tumbling down once again. The car that had plowed into theirs, wasn't as damaged. A unusual fear filled his aching chest as the parallel doors to the rusty car opened. Two scruffy looking men, with ball caps and ripped jeans trekked towards them, both holding a metal object. Unlike Canada, Alec had forgotten that in America people were allowed to carry guns; and the two men looked anger.

"I-I'm sorry, we didn't mean too!" Alec found himself pleading, although he knew that they had been driving on the right side of the road and it was those two men's fault they had crashed. He clung to Wendy tightly, attempting to push her further away from the men. The man with a dark red vest on lashed out grabbing Wendy from him. Alec screamed, his hands flying out to try to retain his sister. The vest man, pulled his sister up from the ground, pushing her against him and sticking a shiny pistol against her skull roughly. "No, please she's my little sister, please don't please we're sorry." He sobbed. "We didn't mean too please don't just please, have me instead." He begged, offering to take his sisters place. Her eyes remained closed, still knocked out from the impact. She was defenseless and purely innocent.

"Who are you?!" The Ripped Jean guy demanded, allowing his partner to handle the younger sibling more roughly.

"Nobody! We're nobody! Just two Canadians on a road trip, please we're sorry we didn't mean too!" He begged, attempting to get on his knees. His hands were up desperately in the air, just wanting to have his sister back in his arms where he knew she'd be safe.

"Then how'd she get this?" Vest Guy interjected pointing at Wendy's dangling bronze amulet with his freehand.

"We found it in some motel!" Alec explained desperately.

"Bullshit!" Vest Guy snarled. "The Winchester's gave that to you! You're trying to get us arrested!"

Alec didn't know who the Vest Guy was talking about, he was to caught up in trying to get his sister out of a crazy man's hands. "I don't know who you are talking about, I swear! We just found it that's all!"

"We'll give you 5 seconds to tell us what they want, before we blow your sister's brains out!" Ripped Jean Guy commanded. Alec got to his knees, tears and snot streaming down his face.

"I don't know!" He screamed pleadingly.

"5..." Ripped Jean Guy counted down. "4..."

These men were off their rockers, they were crazy and paranoid. They were about to blow his sister's brains out. "I'm telling you the truth please!" The men didn't believe him.

"3..." He counted down more. "2..."

The air chilled once again suddenly, and the familiar odd feeling of somebody else presence materialized. The surprisingly comforting whiskey and rotten egg smell made an appearance and the crazy men stopped for a second, a look of fear crossing their face for a second. The hairs on Alec's neck rose, and he stumbled back onto his butt. The faint... glowing? outline of a woman appeared behind the two men. Alec could barely see the black char of burns on the silhouette through the womens dull plaid.

Alec couldn't help but stare at the women in a mixture of awe and confusion. The lady flickered into nothing, and Vest Guy's shining gun that was planted against his sisters skull flew out of his grasp into the treeline, lost forevermore in the canyon. Vest Guy let go of his sister stunned and his partner turned in shock. Wendy collapsed to the concrete floor in a motionless bundle.

"The hell Walt?!" He yelled, putting a name to the man that had almost killed his sister. Seconds later Walt was thrown by an invisible force over their rusty beat up car across the road. Ripped Jean guy soon followed being tossed across landing head first against the concrete; both knocking out on impact. Alec stayed where he was for a split second, attempting to recover his wits and bearings before he stumbled to his feet, picking his sister up and trekking on wobbly feet away from the car crash. He was around 5 minutes out from crash when in the distance he could hear the faint wail of police. A normal thing to be comforted by in a situation like this. He collapsed in a heap, his sister still glued in his arms. Everything that had happen was swimming through his mind, the crash, Wendy, the gun, the men, the lady; what the hell had just happened?! The only thing he knew for certain was that now his little sister was safe in his arms, as fresh as the day he had carried her home from the hospital after she was born.

"Wendy Jo Parrish, I've got you." Was the last thing Alec managed to mumble before blacking out.

 _"I am sending you this postcard, From the silence of the skies, To remind you that there's beauty, In our microscopic size."_

* * *

When Wendy came to it, she was laying in a position she knew hadn't been when she closed her eyes last. Instead of the soft car seat and the leathery steering wheel she had been in the area before, it was replaced with a hard gray bed, light pink walls and a strong unpleasant odor that reminded Wendy of an retirement home. She blinked groggily, bringing her hand up to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She felt a odd tug from her arm just below the elbow and saw a little thin needle sticking from her skin. Connected to the needle was a thin tube that winded up a pole to where a bag filled with liquid was hanging; an IV. Worry filled Wendy's heart and she started to breath faster, less coordinated. What happened? Where was her brother? Why the hell was she in a hospital?

"Hey, hey, hey Wendy it's okay!" Two hands grasp her shoulders and she jumped in the bed, snapping her head up. Alec was standing over her, his hands on her shoulders squeezing reassuringly. He was wearing a light gray robe, similar to the one Wendy had on underneath the bed covers.

"Alec? What- what happened?" She whispered, slowly calming. Alec let go of her shoulders, his hands falling to his side tiredly. He took a seat on the edge of her bed, a troubled frown on his lips.

"We were in a crash Wen." Alec said softly, reaching out and dragging his hand softly through her hair in a soothing motion. A flash of light and a immense memory of pain shot through Wendy. She remembered seeing the car barreling towards them and the point where both cars collided but that was it.

"Did I black out?" She asked. Alec nodded, delicately. His left arm was wrapped in a case that fed up to his elbow while the other was wrapped in abundance of gauss. Alec's left eye was swollen and purple, possibly from the impact.

"Yeah you did."

"What happened after?" She asked.

"Something really, really weird Wen." Alec mumbled honestly. He looked away, blankly at the pink wall. His eyes seemed to skip off, as if recounting and reliving the crash. "These two men came out of the car we crashed into, and uh..."

"What did they do?" Wendy barely managed to whisper. Tears collected in Alec's brown eyes and filled Wendy with shock as he looked at her, genuinely fearful.

"They grabbed you, and pointed a gun to your head." He croaked. Alec took Wendy's hand with both his wounded ones and squeezed hers tightly. "I thought I was going to lose you, I was so scared Wen. I don't want to lose you too, you're my best friend, my sister, I love you so much."

Wendy loved her brother immensely. She loved him as much as he to her. Despite their arguments and purulent fights, they were blood. That would never change how much they cared for each other. But Wendy could sense there was something her brother was not telling her, and she had a gut feeling it was important.  
"Alec, how were we saved?" She whispered firmly, addressing all the sisterly command she had.

"You won't believe me, the doctors said it was just because I have a concussion..." Alec trailed off frowning troubled, as if mentally debating what he saw and what people had told him to believe.

"Alec, please tell me." Wendy begged.

"Thi-this women..." He murmured dazed. Wendy's eyes widened, was it who she was thinking about? "She was somehow behind them then she was gone. It was so weird. The two men just went flying in the air."

"Did she have blond hair, Alec?" She whispered. Alec's eyes widened almost comically, and he nodded.

"Ye-yeah she did. How did you know?" He asked in amazement and disbelief gapping.

"Because I think I've seen her before."

"Wha-" Her older sibling was cut off with the entrance of a police officer. The plump officer walked over to them, giving them both a pitied smile.

"Are you two feeling better?" He asked. The siblings nodded quietly in unison. The reassurance allowed the officer to reach into his breast pocket. Taking out two folded pictures he handed it to them, both eyeing the paper curiously. On it, professionally drawn, was two men who Alec instantly recognized as their two crazy attackers. "Roy Smith and Walt Greene. Both convicted of murder, grave desecration and credit fraud. Apparently yesterday they saw you as their new play toys and decided to have some fun."

The blood chilled in Wendy as she stared at the drawings of the two people who could have possibly ended both her and her brothers life.

"You two are lucky you got out in one piece, and thanks to you they're now both behind bars." The officer who's name was Ted informed. Wendy didn't feel anymore happier, neither did Ale's for that matter.

"Well thank you officer. But is there anyway the stuff in our car can be brought to us?" Alec asked politely. Officer Ted nodded.

"The stuff you had on your persons after the crash should be in this room somewhere, and the stuff in your car we found. They're currently in the hospital storage room, which you can retrieve at anytime."

Alec nodded in appreciation. "I'll let you two be alone, best lucks to the both of you." Officer Ted said kindly. He left the room, and Wendy slumped against the bed's hard pillows. It was all just overwhelming, more had happened in this past week than had in her whole entire life. Wendy knew that if her Ma and Pa were here they'd be all over Alec and her pampering and smothering them. They wouldn't let her outside for months, let alone a car. The car, shit.

"Alec did you call the rental car company?" Wendy pointed out. The car had been totalled, and she doubted they could come rolling into the rental parking lot and just hand it over to them like that.

"Yeah, they weren't to happy but insurance covered it so we're okay." He reassured. "The doctors said we'll have to stay here for a couple of days, make sure all our body parts are intact and healing and then we'll be back on the road."

Wendy shifted in the bed sorely. She was anxious to get back out on the road and find them, and having to wait in a hospital was not going to help her get anywhere closer. "I was thinking," Alec mumbled slowly.

"Oh God you actually thought?" Wendy managed to joked with a scared expression. Alec rolled his eyes, nudging his sister with his hip. "Shut up." He smiled. The smile grew faint, becoming a serious, concentrated line. "I was thinking," He repeated. "Maybe we should stop trying to find them."

Wendy's previous teasing smile crumbled. "Why?" She barely whispered.

"Because I think trying to find them, is like signing our will. The only people who try to track these men are the ones with a deathwish."

"That's not true." Wendy defended.

"Wen, those two guys back on the road were a second away from killing you." He reminded. Wendy winced at the thought, shrinking down closer to her mattress. The older brother realized the harsh comment and ducked his head down quietly in apologizes. "If those men did want to be found, then they would have told everybody we talked to their names."

"Maybe they can't," Wendy suggested pathetically, trying to persuade her brother desperately. "What if they couldn't because they didn't want something to happen."

"Exactly Wendy!" Alec said loudly, almost in a yell. "We're doing exactly what they don't want. That's why you got hurt, those men don't want to be found and we should just stop."

"No." Wendy's expression hardened. "We are going to find them, and that is final."

Alec stood up frustrated. His sister was acting so rash and narrow-minded. Why in the right mind would they go and try to find those guys again who had almost gotten her killed. Just for having something of theirs! He threw up his hands, huffing. "You are willing to put everything on the line for two men you don't have a single clue about?"

Wendy's expression remained hard and emotionless. She didn't move an inch from her spot. Just stayed on the hard bed, staring up at her older brother with stern eyes.

"Yes, because I know they'd do the same." She spoke without a hint of hesitation.

"You don't even know them! You've never seen their faces Wendy! The only thing you do know about them is that they have a black car and are brothers!" Alec erupted incense. "Face it Wendy, they don't know you and neither do you. You don't exist to them. You're just a girl trying to hide the fact that you have a lonely, boring life with nothing good in it! All you do is run away!"

"Shut up." Wendy growled, trying to cover her incensed bundle of emotions boiling madly in her. She knew where this fight was going, and she didn't want it to happen.

"No Wendy, no." Alec spoke commandingly. "You can't just do that again. Can't just do what you want to do and run away, because everytime you do, someone has to suffer, while you just sit on your little self-loathing ass all day and mope before repeating. You're a bratty kid who always makes other people suffer because of your problem; you did it to Mom and Dad- you will not do it to me. Mom and Dad did not die just so you can do the same thing that got them killed in the first place."

She couldn't handle it. All the repressed emotions building up inside; guilt, confusion, rage. They all screamed in her ears wildly, doing as they did everyday for the last 5 months.

"I said _shut up_!" Wendy screamed, exploding. It was her fault that her parents died. Her judgment had been clouded and did what she wanted that night ignoring her parents protests and commands. It was a stupid reason too, one she couldn't even remember presently. All she had known was, that one second she was stomping up to her room and the next a destructive flame was blowing up in her face. The walls were slowly becoming smaller around Wendy, her breathing picked up and she felt sweat start to form. She needed to get out of the hospital, away from her brother. Wendy shifted, pushing her legs off the bed and onto the cold floor barefoot. She stood up, ignoring the light-headed feeling that washed over her.

"What are you doing?" Alec questioned, anger seeping off him slowly being replaced with brotherly concern.

"Going out." She grunted, testing to make sure her feet could hold the weight of her body at her weak state. There wasn't any cast around her legs, just a thick gauss and a couple of bruises trailing up her left calf forming a dark purple blotch.

"You can't, the doctors won't allow it." Alec pointed out. She continued walking to the room door.

"They can't do shit, I'm a Canadian."

Alec was about to follow her, when he took a step back. Space would be a much better cure for both of them. All the close-contact they've had over the past couple of months and repressed tension between them wasn't good to hold any longer. Maybe some time alone even for only 5 minutes was better. Wendy stormed out of the room, wobbling slightly on her feet. Despite being angry at his sister he still needed to make sure she was okay. "Where are you going at least?" He called out to her from inside the room.

"The bar!" Her voice echoed back, resounding against Alec's chest in an ache.

 _"So I hope next time you feel alone, The moon shows you you're not"_

* * *

It had taken some convincing, but the doctors had realized fluently that they could not keep her in the hospital because she was older than 18 and she own person. She had gone to the hospital storage, changing into only what she needed. She found the amulet at the very bottom of a plastic bag, retrieved and taken off at the crash. Slipping her hand into the baggie she took it off and gripped it tightly in her grasp. Just because people were telling her to stop this stupid wish, didn't mean that she would.

After a surprising 3 minute trek she found herself in front of a musty, home-like bar. Inside was around a dozen or so people, mixed genders and ethics all happily conversing peacefully. It was ironic, in what people thought would be a shady, unsafe places like bars were actually very peaceful. While on the other hand places like hospitals were known to be quiet and restful; quite the contrary to what had just went down in the hospital.

She took a seat on the soft leathery circle barstool, waiting for the bartender patiently. The guy who sat beside her was right up there on the list of people she did not want to mess with. He was buff, not _I-work-out-everyday_ buff, but the _My-life-is-on-the-line-and-I-need-to-be-ready_ tough. His hair was long, roughly around the same length as Alec's. Although Alec's was more black French fry curly whilst the man sitting beside her had a more straight, curl at the tip towards his ear, dark brown hair. It was the thing that made Wendy regret her undeniably bad seat choices. But the thing that hit her the most was his eyes. Now Wendy as an awkward single chick didn't look at guys eyes very often. The only time being either her family's, or while she was talking directly to a friend. Other than that, Wendy did not swoon over guys eyes like all the other ladies. She tend to stay away from that. But these eyes, golly gee, those eyes had grabbed a hold of her and practically dragged her into Wonderland. It wasn't the color that pulled her in, it was the emotion. Those eyes looked tired, very very tired. A old warlike tired she only saw in her grandfather eye's after recounting his memory of storming the Juno Beach of Normandy.

Wendy didn't know how long she had been staring but the guy must have caught on, because he turned his head raising an eyebrow at her. To him she probably looked like some slightly high- which she kind of was- weirdo. "Hi?" He said bemused. Wendy blinked snapping out of her daze as he spoke. Something was bugging her, something very important that was being clouded by the IV's and beer. If she had been totally sober of anything that distorted her memory and thought she would have figured it out.

"Hi." She mumbled.

"You okay ma'am?" The guy asked curiously, eyeing her hazy face and sleepy eyes.

"Yes." Wendy barely managed to squeak. She quickly turned her eyes away from the man, staring at her beer that was sat in front of her. She took a sip of the beer trying to hold onto her dignity and save herself from being embarrassed. From the corner of her eye the man scanned her up and down as if trying to figure out if she was a danger. After a couple of seconds, he must have found nothing dangerous about her and shrugged it off. He pushed a wad of cash onto the bar-counter, thanking the bartender with a brief but grateful nod. The guy slipped off the stool, adjusting his jacket and walking out the door. Wendy couldn't help but watch grudged as he left. Something at the back of her head was screaming at her, but she just couldn't put back the pieces of the puzzle. He reminded her of someone, but who?

And that's when she heard it.

An engine, but not just any engine. A engine that roared so clearly it was like a purr. She craned her eyes quickly around to the door where the man had just walked out of, her red hair whipped in unison falling against her left eye and ear. A combination of both concentration and realization dawned on her and she quickly stumbled out off the stool, rushing as fast as her bruised legs could take her. She evaded past a young, pre-law couple coming into the bar laughing merrily and burst out the doors with such speed that made her almost fall over. She looked around wildly, in a full circle trying to locate the sound. Finally just when all hope seemed lost

Wendy caught sight of a slick black beast, being driven by a man roughly in his early 30s, accompanied by the guy who had just left the bar. Before she could do anything the car disappeared behind a building, turning out of her sight; leaving her out in the middle of the parking lot, slightly intoxicated and sleepy, but mostly hopeful.

She had meet one of them, even if it had been a brief conversation with them. This was proof that she could find the men, that Alec was wrong and that she didn't have a death wish. The encounter gave her strength and hope, enough to fill a whole country in its neediest times. She clutched the amulet hidden under her shirt tightly and with a merry sigh cried out in joy.

It kept her going for 3 long months.

After the initial fight with her brother, they had both decided to come to an equal agreement. The siblings settle down in South Dakota: Alec's idea. Wendy was allowed to look for the men, only if she stayed in the state; Wendy's idea. It worked for a bit, Wendy spent her free time -when she wasn't working- searching up any possible stories or ideas about the men. Anything that brought her a little closer. But as the days grew into weeks and weeks grew into months, she was soon up the wall trying to find any possible help in South Dakota. Alec had gotten a job in record time as an architect, not for a majorly big company, but one that could sustain itself pretty well. Wendy had gotten a job as a coroner thanks to her top grades at her time in university and was working at a small morgue in a separate building from a hospital. Still it wasn't enough. Her breadcrumbs were starting to grow moldy and disappear, she was on the brink of completely losing hope.

That was until her newest encounter with the blond-haired, plaid wearing mystery woman.

Wendy had been walking home after work alone, the amulet she wore everyday bouncing off her collarbone with every step. The sun was slowly setting, only reaching the treeline. As far as Wendy knew, she was the only one on the street. Her mind had been somewhere else, exploring her memories so intently that she hadn't even noticed the sleek black car she had casually walked by. Wendy kept walking, unknowing of what she was going to get herself into. She stopped in front of an intersection, eyeing the crossroad. Either take the quicker path through the market place, or take the longer route through the park. Just as she was about to take a step towards the marketplace, a cold chill past through her, stopping her dead in her tracks. It was August, the fall wasn't coming for another month or so. Sure the weather had been unnaturally scary as of late, growing more and more erratic, but this wasn't like the weather. This wasn't Mother Nature's doing, Wendy was sure of that. Another chill went through her and her eyes whipped around towards the park path instinctively. There just a faint flickering nostalgic image, was the strange plaid wearing lady who smelled of whiskey and home. An odd reassurance that something important was going to happen. The lady for the first time ever smiled to Wendy, as if trying to tell the young girl to trust her. She gestured for Wendy to follow, in a slow motion before flickering away a couple meters from where she stood previous. Wendy dropped any thought she had before, deciding to willingly trust the mysterious stranger. The faint blond lady lead her into the middle of the park, where the trees covered the receding sun and approaching stars.

The lady finally came to a stop just in front of a large bush blocking the background view. Wendy stopped a couple of feet away from the shimmering lady staring at her in awe. Through the burns Wendy could see clearly now, the lady was beautiful. She had a motherly look to her, with soft eyes that spoke silent words of encouragement and love.

"Why'd we stop?" Wendy asked, knowing fully that the woman wouldn't answer. Though Wendy had been wrong before, the woman had answered, not in words that her ears could pick up but with a symbol. The faint glowing lady reached out pointing to Wendy's collarbone; more importantly where the amulet hung. Wendy's eyes widened in disbelief. Was the lady saying that the men she had been looking for were here? in this park? The blonde lady, as if she knew what Wendy was thinking nodding, giving her a wide closed, peaceful smile.

The lady disappeared in a bright glow that spread warmth over Wendy.

When the light had faded, all that was left of the strange, see-through lady was the faint smell of whiskey.

The lady had been guiding her to them. There couldn't be any other reason why.

Someone was just past that bush.

Taking a deep breath, her heart pumped rapidly in her chest sparing the exciting no more. Wendy took a step and then another, into a small opening right in the middle of the park. A place Wendy would often go to think. In the middle of the clearing was a park bench, a old oak one rimmed with rusting metal. It was rarely used from anybody other than her, but today was different. There was someone on it.

The tall, long haired man she had seen and sat beside at the bar all those months ago. He looked to be in deep thought, thinking about something that Wendy could probably not fathom. After all he had potentially saved more people than Wendy could ever meet. Around him, that only few could feel was an warm aura that announced to only the reserved like Wendy, that he was somehow, important. She didn't doubt what her gut was saying. The man looked up surprised by her arrival, and stared straight into her eyes. She shifted timidly.

"Who are you?" He spoke cautiously, standing up to his full towering height. Wendy seemed to shrink under the stare of the long haired man. Man did she feel small.

And Alec thought he could beat this guy up for stealing bed-sheets. This guy could snap him into fours.

Wendy took a deep breath, gathering the courage to stare up into his eyes courageously. "My name is Wendy Parrish, I grew up in Clearwater, British Columbia and about 3 months ago I found two mattresses covered in your blood."

The man just stared at her perplexed. "Excuse me?"

Yeah, her description didn't really make sense or seem to flow for that matter. "My brother, Alec and I have traveled 3 months for you and your brother. We've been through towns and states and today was the day I was going to give up."

"Why were you following us?" The man asked, his voice edged with demand and warning. This was what Wendy had been waiting for, this is what her life had revolved around for 3 months. She bowed her head, taking the amulet hidden under her shirt off and held it out in front of the tall man to see.

"To return this."

The man stared bewildered and stunned. Wendy could almost spot a hint of admiration in his eyes. Which seemed like a thing to be proud of coming from the man. Though once the impression shone, it had disappeared. The millisecond of happiness left, leaving only a shell of hopelessness and despair. She didn't understand why, shouldn't he be happy that she had come all this way, traveled through states, talked to unique strangers, just to return an object to him? She had done it all for them, why wasn't he happy though?

I don't want it." He spoke. Every bit and piece of Wendy shattered at his words. Tears boiled in her eyes.

"B-but, why?" She stuttered, close to tears. She sounded so childish and small. Compared to others around her, it would look like she was overreacting.

"Look... Wendy, right?" He said slowly. Wendy nodded silently, clutching the amulet tightly. He paused looking away before coming back to look into her eyes. "That amulet use to mean a lot to me, and my brother. But it doesn't anymore. I gave it to him as a gift a long time ago, when things were better and there was hope. But now, with everything going on, family isn't the top priority anymore."

Wendy didn't understand what he was talking about. Why wasn't there hope anymore? Was something bad happening that only a select few knew about? The tall man licked his chapped lips, glancing at the trees and back. "I appreciate your effort- really, but you really shouldn't have. That amulet doesn't mean anything to either my brother nor I anymore."

With that he turned around silently, taking a step away and then another. Wendy felt her chance slowly slipping between her fingers.

"That's bullshit!" Wendy blurted out suddenly, tears bubbled in her eyes. The man stopped in his tracks and twisted around stunned and bemused at her outburst. Heck even she was surprised. Wendy shrank down at his presence and intimidating height again. The young lady had come all this way and was not going to back down just because the guy thought all hope was lost for some reason. She had put to much on the line for this, for them.

"Pardon?" The man said, waiting for her answer.

"You're wrong." She squeaked anxiously. "I mean, you say there's nothing left to fight for -nothing worth it- but there is."

"And what's that?" The man says, not in an impatient, rude way. But a genuine desperate 'please tell me' way. As if he openly needed every bit of advice he could get.

Wendy raised the amulet again. "You say this amulet doesn't mean anything to you anymore, right?"

He nodded, she continued. "When I was looking for you, I talked to people, so many. And they told me stories about you, things that gave me hope and lead me on. All those things said, and you wanna know what those people and I got out of it?" Wendy paused, looking up at the man. "It was how much you and your brother loved each other."

All the conversations came rushing back to her, in a series of memories and voices.

 _ **"**_ _When you hear that engine, you'll never forget it."_

 _"All I know is that they're proof that you can be totally selfless for your brother."_

 _"People on-only keep on going like that, f-for their family."_

 _"I've got a family, I've got a daughter, and a wife because of them."_

The man said nothing, but Wendy could tell her words were slowly but steadily breaking through his invincible walls. "This amulet," She showed it as if holding the Holy Grail. "This piece hanging from some worn cord is your love for your brother. It's your story, and you don't just throw that away. You don't just abandon it."

"Wendy..." He trailed off.

"No." She snapped powerfully, before he could finish his sentence. Wendy wasn't mad, just sick of people thinking there was no hope. "I don't care what you say. Because I know there is still hope, still something to fight for; and its your brother. I don't know what you're fighting, I don't know what you are going through, but if everything seems hopeless; at least fight for your brother."

She stretched out her hand, holding the amulet out to him. The man faltered for a second before slowly reaching in, wrapping his large rough hand around her small, slender and smooth ones. Gently taking the amulet.

"Please, always keep fighting for yourself and if not, do it for your family; your brother."

The man fumbled around with the amulet in some sort of nostalgic trance. He had a faint sad smile on his lips with eyes that were filled with sorrow. Squeezing it tightly, he closed his eyes for a second; taking a long deep breath exhaling through his nose. Wendy stood and watched, staring at awe at the man she had come to see as a hero; and even still now, she saw him as one. Nothing would change that.

The long haired man opened his eyes, before lowering his cupped hands, staring at the amulet one last time. He looked back at Wendy, who's eyes were big and innocent; filled with hope and love.

"I want you to have it." He said softly, extending his hands out to her. She gapped in disbelief.

"W-why?" She sputtered.

"Something big is about to happen tomorrow- like end of the world big, and ever since I was a kid, this amulet has made me feel safe and protected. I want- you to feel protected and safe- come whatever."

She accepted the amulet, taking it out of his hands the second time. Despite her having it previously, he was giving up something that gave him safety. In a way saving her from unpredictable trouble and evil.

"But..." She trailed off. The man gave her a reassuring smile.

"I know what I have to do, and it's going to be to take care of my family."

Somehow Wendy knew he wasn't lying.

As the man was about to leave, this time finally, a promise popped up in her head.

"Wait!" She called. The man turned curiously, Wendy smiled widely at him, pouring all the love and gratefulness she had contained inside her to him. "Margo says thank you."

The man grinned, smiling at the grass then back to her. His eyes sparkled thousands of stories. Stories Wendy would have loved to hear. "Margo Fuller." He whispered the name. "One heck of a girl." With that he turned, trekking into the dark forest where Wendy hoped he would meet with his brother.

Only when Wendy was completely alone in the clearing, did she remember that she never got his name.

The way Wendy figure it, everybody got an adventure.

Her adventure was finding those men.

That amulet, she had found sitting alone in a empty trash can was her guide. Without it, nothing that had happened would have. She would never have thought to look under the mattress, never would have pursued finding and talking to Margo, or being lead to David, or even undoubtedly the car crash. The amulet wasn't pretty, it wasn't a diamond ring or phone case or even wad of cash. But it was so profoundly important to her.

It was arguably one of the most important objects in universe.

 _"And how lucky we all are to find, our home on this blue dot."_

 _-E.h_

* * *

 _Le Fin_

 _Thanks for reading!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Panacea to Loneliness_

Wendy loved stories, she loved tragedies, suspense, fantasy and even the occasional mystery. Her new room that she finally could call home was littered with books; stacked neatly by spine in bookcases or laying half-opened on her desk and sometimes floor. She was the little girl that had her nose in a book while the other kids played with each other at school. While others thought of friends as family, Wendy thought of books as home; it was her abditory, her own purgatory. She could be a great and courageous heroine, or lone wanderer doing humble acts as she passed through villages. In books she had a purpose, a storyline, but in reality she wasn't so sure; it was much more confusing and tricky. There wasn't always the archetypes she had grown up with, or the 12 clock formula explained in _A Hero With a Thousand Faces_ , it was just her. No sidekick to encourage her when all seems lost, no wise wizard to mentor her into greatness, not even a set villain with plans that went against her belief. It was just her, trying to solve a very tricky puzzle with no end or deserved break.

Wendy loved a good book, she adored a inspiring hero or two.

But heroes only came around if you asked a shooting star or clock that read 11:11 everyday.

Only once, never twice.

It was a wall that society had placed in Wendy's head unknowingly. Because she was wrong, and yet she refused to believe that. Because heroes did come around more than once, they were everywhere; in the coffee shop, the local drugstore, and even walking their dog. Everybody was a hero in some way, and Wendy was about to find out.

2 years and 8 months later, since that late August day in the clearing of that memorable park Wendy wasn't even a sliver close to forgetting, she had an encounter. It was just after her and her brother had finished hosting a home party. Close friends that the siblings had made in the short time of living in South Dakota had all left their cozy house, waving goodbye slightly tipsy. They had all gotten in their set taxes and drove off as Alec shouted a goodbye.

Alec shut the bright royal blue door with a relaxing sigh, leaning against the back of it. Wendy looked up from the sink overflowing with dirty dishes that she had started. "You okay?" She asked, curious about her brothers expression. Alec gave a smug smile and made his way around the marble counter, sitting down beside the kitchen island.

"I asked Lauren out on a date," He said happily. Wendy put the dish plate she was holding on the counter in disbelief and joy.

"No way!" She breathed in excitement. Alec smiled bobbing his head equally happy- probably more. Wendy nudged his shoulder proudly. "Atta boy, big brother's finally got a girl!"

"Let's hope." Alec grinned. "I don't know if it will work out, or that if she likes me the same amount I do for her."

"Of course she does, why would you think that? You're super cool, so nice and is great with kids!" Wendy prompted viberantly. "What's not there to like? You're the whole package!"

Alec ducked his head sheepishly, his cheeks flaming bright pink at all the compliments. Wendy had meant all those things, he had cleaned himself up a lot these past couple of years. He had cut his hair to a respectable length that worked for his curls, decided to stop drinking (not like he drank a lot anyways), joined a couple of clubs and even set up his own personal office in their house or his drawings and blueprints. Saying Wendy was proud would be an understatement. Alec propped his elbows on the counter, resting his chin on them. "So what about you, I saw Tucker eying you today, think there's anything good there?"

Wendy shrugged causally. Tucker was nice, it was a lie to say that she didn't fancy or enjoy him. He was kind, caring, respectable and smart; he was everything a girl like Wendy would want in a guy. So when she had shrugged, Wendy didn't know why; she should have said yes. "Maybe." Was all that came out of her mouth. Alec straightened up, flicking his hand dismissively and walked to the fridge. He opened it up as Wendy rolled her eyes and went back to scrubbing at the dishes.

"Dang, no milk." Alec complained. He shut the fridge door and grabbed his keys. "I'm going to run out to the convenient store and pick some up, that good with you?"

Wendy nodded absently. "Go ahead, but if you see a guy in a white van offering you candy don't follow him."

"Ha ha very funny." Alec said dryly, rolling his eyes. The younger sibling craned her neck around to make eye contact and winked mockingly. Alec threw on his jacket, trekking to the door and put on his boots. She heard the door shut closed, defining her as the lone human being in the house. Or so she thought.

Five minutes into scrubbing away at the pasta sauce glued to the plate, she heard the undeniable sound of a window opening. Wendy paused, mid scrub glancing around the kitchen and living room suspiciously. No windows were open that she could remember. She had closed them a couple of hours before went it started to rain. She placed the plate down on the counter, letting the water drip onto marble, sinking to the tile floor below.

Taking a couple of steps forward she heard the new, terrifying sound of one of the windows shutting. Fear filled Wendy's stomach, Alec wasn't fucking with her, he wouldn't do that. Was she going to be robbed? Wendy slowly followed where the sound had come from directing herself to Alec's design room. Shutting her eyes just outside the menacing room she took a deep breath, gripping each arm tightly.

"Please don't be a person, please be the wind." She repeated to herself in a rushed panicked whisper. Finding enough courage, Wendy took a turtle-like step into the room, her eyes shooting towards the window, ready to face whoever had come in.

Instead to her relief the window was shut and she visibly sighed in relief, choking a dumb grin. How could she think that she was being robbed? It was such a stupid thought that her paranoia had been allow to take over. Robberies only happened to people that were important, like in the books; Wendy wasn't important.

Wendy ignoring her paranoia and gut screaming desperately at her turned around and started to walk. Only she hurried straight into a sturdy wall that was oddly close and soft. Said wall shot out an arm, grabbing her shoulder tightly keeping her in place. She followed the arm that was wrapped around her shoulder with her eyes and dreadingly found it belonged to a person. That person having long brown hair, wise yet hurt eyes, and a unmistakeable sharp jawline. If Wendy wasn't scared shitless she'd might find herself saying the robber was fairly attractive. Instead Wendy let out a short-lived high pitched scream. The robber shot another large hand out, cupping it over her mouth, canceling her scream.

"Wendy I'm not going to hurt you." The man said carefully. Wendy's eyes widened at the mention of her name. The robber knew her name! She squirmed more roughly attempting to break out of the man's invincible grip. The robber noticing that she wasn't going to stop trying to escape, sighed. He let go of her shoulder and reached out to her collarbone with the hand. Wendy was pinned against a wall and a stranger. No way could she run, the man could do whatever he desired to her in her own house, whether sexual or just plain out physical. She struggled more desperately as if being caged in a scary yet real situation. The man was going to do something perverted to her, why else would he go for her collarbone and below. The man's eyes studied her confusingly before widening in realization, his hand dropping from near her collarbone back to his side. Her nerves sighed slightly in relief but she didn't show the man that. "No, no I'm not trying to do that- I was just going to-" He stopped himself, seeing that his nervous rambling was getting him nowhere. He exhaled stressfully, he wasn't trying to scare Wendy- things were just not working for him today.

"Just... your amulet, take it out for me."

At first Wendy was confused, why the heck did a robber want some worn out amulet she wore everyday? Was it because it was her own personal anchor? Or because it was very important to her? Before she could think up anymore questions it dawned on her, the thought slamming into the backside of her head. She stopped her struggling and looked up at the man, really looked. She knew him- well briefly talked to him- but she'd seen him. It was the breadcrumb man! How could she even remotely forget his appearance?

Just as Wendy was about to say something through his hand clamped to her mouth, the man's- her hero's- eyes rolled back into his head. His grasp loosened and he released her, collapsing to the floor in a bundle of long legs and plaid. It took a second for Wendy to recover, but when she did she flew down beside him hovering her hand just below his nose to check if he was alive. It was then had Wendy noticed the blood covering his torso and staining his shirt. If this was his blood than no wonder he had fainted, it was a ton- and scary ton.

Hesitantly she pinched the bloody fabric lifting it carefully up to expose the man's torso. He was buff, like what she had predicted close to 3 years ago, but instead of seeing the clear pale skin of his torso all she saw was an oozing red. Three darker slashes went down his chest to just close to his hip that were the senders of the blood. Wendy hitched her breath, instantly shooting up from the floor and towards the first-aid kit. She might not be a doctor but she was an coroner, and dead bodies were once alive at some point; this would be a piece of cake... maybe. The young lady looped the kit around her shoulder and bent down back beside the man. She took his arms gently, partially heaving- more so dragging him to the closest couch. Boy was he heavy, 6,4 all muscle-no fat, but she had tussled with horses more wild back in Clearwater. Wendy heaved him onto the couch, dropping the first aid and opening it up.

She did everything she usually would when cleaning a dead body at work, first wiping away blood as best as she could, then disinfecting the wounds, wrapping the man in a gauss to stop the bleeding. Normally she wouldn't disinfect the body since the corpse was already dead, but he was an alive- he was living and breathing.

Though Wendy feared he really wasn't.

It wasn't the old scars that littered his upper body, or the purple bruises that looked like someone had swung a metal bat at the man multiple times; it was the sickly pale skin tone that Wendy dreadingly knew didn't originate from the blood loss. Because even now he grew even more paler by the second, looking a scary sheet of white.

It was something else, he was skinner then she had remembered, not by a lot but enough for her to notice. His jeans hung loosely, despite having a belt put on the tightest hole and the bags under his eyes showed signs of insomnia. She had seen this before, a sight that everytime she did, made her look away with remorse. A man who was brave enough to save a girl from a big scary black dog, a man who was courageous enough to save multiple people from being eaten alive by crazy cannibals. Yet here he was, the brave, strong man Wendy had the fortunate to meet once, laying knocked out on her couch, looking like a corpse of his own.

Yes, Wendy had seen this before, but whenever she did see it, the people experiencing what the man was, was always laying on her coroners table staring up at the ceiling motionless, with the words; **SUICIDE** bolded and labeled on their folders.

For the first time in a long time, in close to three years, Wendy cried.

She weeped for the man who was her hero, but here he was looking anything but one. The man she believed once to have saved the world. This wasn't like in the books, heroes didn't turn out this way, they had happily ever afters. Where was his?

But this was the reality, a reality that had not be learnt by Wendy yet. Heroes didn't always get happy endings, in most cases not- they never did. Heroes suffered afterwards, whether physically or mentally. They were never quite the same as they were before; changed for the worst, scared in the most fragile of places.

"My brave stranger," She whispered, trailing her fingers through his messy hair softly. Her sad eyes skipped from his shut eyelids to painful deep wounds. "Where did you go?"

Alec had been gone a long time, roughly over an hour. Wendy was fairly positive- 90% certain- that milk did not take an hour to buy. Although Alec was a big boy, he was a grown man even though he sometimes had the maturity of a 8 year old. Wendy peered out the kitchen window once, staring at the setting sun. It felt like only a click later before she looked out it again to see the dark night that was lit with millions of stars. As her hero- who's name was still not known- slept, recovering from his gashes, Wendy finished cleaning the house from their prior party. She was humming an old tune her Pa would whisper to her when things were rough at night, whilst putting away the last of the dishes. Wendy was to caught up in cleaning the kitchen, that she hadn't even noticed the man with silent feet, tread in and lean heavily against the kitchen wall. She shuffled by oblivious, opening the last pine cabinet on the right shelf not before doing a little skip when the humming hit a tune.

"Crowded House, Don't Dream It's Over." The man mused speaking up from his observation. Wendy jumped, almost dropping the plate and spun around. She placed her freehand on her heart, taking a deep breath from the jump-scare.

"Pardon?" She sputtered out of breath rather quickly. The man shifted his shoulder where he was leaning, wincing at the pain, before settling back against the wall gripping his left arm with his right hand.

"The song you're humming, it's from Crowded House."

Out of all the proper conversations she had dreamed constantly of having with this man- 80's rock songs weren't one of them. She dropped her hand, falling to her sides. "Yes, my Dad use to hum it to me when I was younger." Wendy vividly remembered her Dad humming the lyrics one by one so clearly it was as if she could hear him at that exact moment. She smiled to herself. "Actually, he did it up until I was twenty; kinda lame but it was home. I guess you know a lot about that type of music, huh?"

The man, for the first time in a long time- despite Wendy not knowing that- smiled. He smiled to himself in a reserved and tortured manner, as if the memories that were brought with that smile haunted him with stories about legendary road trips, endless skies and the loss of someone dear. "My brother," He paused, before continuing. "my brother would blast them when he drove, stupidly loud. I use to hate it y'know? Now it's..."

"It's like a part of you missing?" Wendy finished quietly. The man looked down at his feet, before nodding shortly. Wendy wasn't a people person, she observed. She saw how a pair's arms would brush against each other, not their relation with each other. She saw how others nodded and said the two words everybody just wanted to hear 'I'm fine' even though they weren't, not how the person trying to lyingly reassure that they were okay was just doing it to please the other. She didn't have to be a people person to tell that she was right. "What's your name?"

Wendy needed to know the man's name, she had become so clouded in recent events to forget to ask it. Names were important, a person's name meant that they existed, that they were human and that they had something they only owned. The man hesitated, as if telling her his name could lead to a tragic downfall. Wendy could see the gears in his head working, mapping out every possible outcome to saying his name. The good outweighed the bad though, because he looked up.

"Sam."

 _Sam_ , it rolled off her tongue smoothly, settling a smile on her lips. Sam, the stranger who saved dozens of people, the man who never asked for any recognition or possession in return. But that man wasn't a lone wanderer, he had come with another package- someone who had taught him those virtues. One didn't come without the other, it was like everything in life- the sun and the moon, fire and water, love and hate, light and the dark, water and blood; they were inseparable.

"Where is your brother Sam?

He looked up from the tile floor, eyes so close in resemblance to a child- lost and alone.

"Gone."

It had taken some coaxing, but Wendy had finally managed to settle Sam down on the couch again. _Sam_ , she just couldn't not stop thinking or speaking his name. It was as if all the puzzles she had unsuccessfully left incomplete as a child was finally put back together. The young lady trailed over to where Sam was sitting quietly and placed a tray of chicken noodle soup, a small cup of tea in front of him. Sam looked up from studying his palms intently in surprise, he opened his mouth to protest but Wendy shot him a glare.

"Don't even think about it." She spoke commandingly. "You are going to eat that soup and you are not going to complain." Her tone in no means was harsh, it was motherly- despite her being roughly around the same age as Sam she had felt obligated to nurse them like a mother. His brows shot up in surprise but didn't argue any further. Sam took the tea cup, wrapping his fingers around it and brought it to his lips. Wendy sat down on the edge of the loveseat parallel to him, watching every movement he made.

"What happened?" She asked quietly as he set the cup down. The bags under his eyes seemed to darken, and he suddenly looked more frail and pale than usual.

"It's not a happy story." He said.

"I know." She told him.

So he told her. At first she had thought that the gauss's were wrapped a little to tight, but then slowly things started to piece together. He told her all the things that had happened in the past years. How basically doomsday was planned, how people were dropping like flies. He talked about the day after meeting Wendy where he jumped into a dark endless hole that lead him to Hell on earth. It did make a little sense to Wendy. She did remember how after their meeting for the first time in the park clearing, all the natural disasters and unusual behavior happening around the world came to a sudden stop as if someone had punched the STOP button on a high-speed train. He told her about coming back from said Hell on earth, being like a robot and having no emotions- then getting them back. About how these lizard-like humanoids were released set on world domination. Sam didn't go fully into saying how they were released, all he had said was "Mistakes were made and good intentions turned sour." Told how said humanoid lizards dressed up as his brother and him going guns'n'blazing and shooting up any poor sucker that walked past them. He went on explaining how him, his brother who's name was Dean and another man -a tax accountant?- defeated the leader of said evil lizards who's name was surprisingly Richard Roman. Wendy had to be truthfully honest, she had never liked that Roman guy to begin with. Every sign on her town always had that smug face of his on it. Everything about his company just screamed LIES! So when he had shockingly 'disappeared into thin air' on the media, Wendy couldn't help but relax her shoulders a bit.

And finally Sam told Wendy about the 'incident' as he recalled it. How after defeating the monster that was Richard Roman, Sam's brother and the tax accountant man had disappeared along with Dick; into literal thin air, leaving just Sam.

Alone.

"You told me to fight for my brother, and I did," Sam whispered brokenly, his eyes looked up to Wendy's, shining with tears. "but he isn't here anymore, and I don't know what to fight for... what do I fight for when I just want to-" The words stuck in his throat, not allowing anymore from leaving. The man sitting in front of her had literally no one. His parents were gone, his present fatherly figure and friends, and his brother- all gone. In a world filled brimming with over 6 billion people, he had no one. Sure Wendy had lost her parents, but she had had her brother to support her. She had a job that didn't require her life to be put on the line everytime she woke up and was able to make friends. This man didn't. As far as the world was concerned he along with her brother were dead, but to the select few who knew he was still alive they only saw a lone nomad carrying a heavy, lonely burden, with only a black car to keep him moving.

It's told that when a person is dying, sight is the first sense they lose- the last being hearing. Sam had been wandering aimlessly- blindly around America with no set destination for the past couple of months. Even the blind had a destination, they had somewhere to go and someone or something to aid them- a cane, a service animal, a another person. But Sam, Sam didn't. He didn't have a dream place, Wendy doubted he ever had one. Sooner or later the words people thanked him with would be nothing, he wouldn't hear them. He'd be totally alone, reserved to just his inner voice. People didn't want to hear negative things, they wanted to hear positive ones; but how could that be if that person had none who loved them?

A thought that made Wendy's skin crawl formed in her saddened mind, the man was a walking corpse.

3 years ago the man sitting in front of her unknowingly saved her life, now it was time for Wendy to return the favor.

She was going to give life to the Tin Man.

Wendy got up from the loveseat, a new idea forming in her mind. She trailed out the living room into the front hall where she took out her phone. Dialing her brother, he picked up finally on the first ring.

"Where have you been?" She questioned tightly skipping the intro. There was a brief pause followed by the phone's static.

"Yeah, I got sidetracked." Alec's voice spoke from the line.

"Doing what?" No answer came and Wendy sighed. "Please don't tell me you're at work..."

"What!" Alec protested. "You know when I'm happy I get good ideas!"

She rolled her eyes. Unlike other guys, Alec would be at work in the middle of the night drawing up some blueprints. Although on the other hand, at least he didn't have a bloody and beaten stranger on their couch. "Alec." She mumbled innocently, her voice pitching.

"What did you do." Alec commanded from the line. Whenever Wendy was guilty of something her voice would always go an octave higher and she'd sound like a little kid who kicked a puppy. "Wendy what did you do."

Wendy rocked back and forth on her feet, she took a deep breath and explained the unexpected meeting and story. After roughly around 3 minutes of her rambling on, the line went silent from the other end. She glanced anxiously at the phone. "Alec you still there?"

Nothing, then-

"I'm gone a hour and you stumble upon some bleeding man that's now on our couch!" He erupted. Wendy winced at his volume, pushing the phone away from her ear.

"It's not that bad Alec I swear." She tried fruitlessly to explain.

"You just told me that a bunch of lizards tried to take over the world!" He argued.

Wendy sighed, rubbing her forehead with her free hand. "Is that seriously all you got from the story?"

"When I get back home- oh man are you going to be in some deep shit. I'm coming home right no-"

"No!" Wendy blurted out. "I need you to do me something, it's really important."

"What call the cops on the man bleeding on MY couch?" He snarked sassily.

"No, I need you to do me a favor."

And Wendy got to explaining.

The sun was officially rising and Wendy had been up for more than 15 hours straight now. She was surviving on a rotation of 2 cups of coffee doubled with sugar every hour. Sam had unsurprisingly stayed awake as well. Wendy wouldn't doubt for a second it was because of the insomnia and ache. In that time Wendy had told Sam every possible embarrassing story of herself that she could think of- even the ones she most repressed into herself. Attempting desperately to crack a smile out of the broken man. Wendy wanted to speak words of encouragement to Sam, but she couldn't. Because she didn't have experience in what he was going through. Full blown hopelessness, and that wasn't something words could heal.

She needed to remind him why he was alive.

And she prayed to the absent God that it would work.

When the royal blue front door to the house creaked open, Wendy jumped up from her spot; the plan had arrived, and it was coming full force. She warmly smiled widely at Sam who's frown only grew with the confusion. The smaller lady helped Sam up, allowing him to put some of his weight on her. She assisted Sam to front hall, bearing his heavy weight where suddenly Sam froze in his tracks, shoulders tensing in surprise.

There standing beside the grumpy and somewhat flabbergasted Alec, was Margo Fuller.

All 4 feet, 11 inches of brown eyed, brown hair girl.

As both the little girl's and tall man's eyes meet, the air grew thick. Margo's eyes were the size of saucers, all she saw in front of her was her hero. Not Alec and not Wendy, just her hero. The little girl didn't seem to care that Sam was very pale, or was leaning on Wendy for support. All she cared about was that he was there, breathing- standing- in the same room as her. A thought that only could have been a dream to some.

"D-do y-y-you rem-m-member me?" The little girl squeaked.

Sam smiled honestly, maybe the first in what Wendy predicted in awhile. He smiled with his eyes and lips. Lips being the natural gesture most knew while eyes being the real conveyor of emotion. "Of course, how could I forget?" He spoke softly. "Margo Fuller." The name slipped of his lips smoothly, and Margo visibly relaxed. Margo's hero shrugged out of Wendy's support, standing on his own two feet independently. He took a wobbly step forward, before kneeling on the ground to level with Margo. Her eyes grew wider in awe and fascination like a child being given a big olde gob of ice-cream.

Wendy held back tears of joy at the silent sight. She bit her lip, leaning back restfully against the wall. Parallel to her, Alec unknowingly did the same. His recent grumpy expression was quickly replaced, unable to hold back his smile and risk his manliness. There was a moment when nothing happened. Nobody said a thing, not a peep in any mouths nor the creak of a doors. Breathes were held and smiles were permanent. Then just as the moment was possibly going away, Margo plunged into Sam, wrapping her thin arms around his neck and bringing a whole new wave of emotion. Sam openly accepted the hug, wrapping his arms around Margo. Hands fisted tightly into Margo's coat attached like glue. He pressed the side of his head against the little girl's, both sharing each other's shoulder with one another. Margo was the first to take her head off his shoulder, she lifted it and angled his lips towards his ear and in a hushed, grateful, slow voice spoke.

"Y-you sa-saved me."

Sam's grip on the little girl tightened almost protectively, and he buried his face into her small shoulder.

Wendy was in desperate need of a tissue box. Sooner or later her tears would start flowing like Niagara Falls, and once they started there was no stopping. To her luck but not relief, the two broke off, Sam standing back up. He wobbled a bit but remained standing staring down at Margo with a look of love. It got Wendy thinking. Most of the people Sam and his brother had saved throughout their life only got to see the pair once. It was a negative for both sides, the victims never got to give their thanks to them, and the brothers never got to receive any recognition- whether they wanted to or not. They were never fully given the entitlement of importance. Never really credited with what they had done to protect people. But even so they kept on going, and kept on doing what they did, without people's approval or knowledge what so ever. Some heroes to people were singers and or artist of any kind. Most of them got recognition for what they did, through media or just socially, but here was this guy, who the world only knew as a supposedly dead serial killer, a man of hidden respect and importance, so far under the radar that nobody actually knew if they were bad or not. A man and his brother's act of bravery never being told as a deserved story to little kids that empowered and inspired them like superheroes did.

Though as Wendy watched Margo stare up at her hero in total awe and joy, Wendy realized that there was still a chance that could happen. Margo could still allow those deserved stories and secret legacy to flourish. After all everything always started with one person, even a child.

She realized, that if anything were to happen- Wendy would willingly take a bullet for the man. She didn't doubt for a second that all the people he saved would do the same.

"We've.. uh, got leftover pasta in the fridge if you guys want some..." Alec said slowly, as everybody's heads turned in his direction.

And that was how the four of them found themselves sat in the dining room -at 6am- eating nuked pasta- one dead serial killer, one possibly kidnapped little girl, one grumpy architect and lastly one coffee-away-from-overdose believer.

With the presence of Margo around, Sam had looked a lot healthier and alive than Wendy had seen throughout the whole experience. He was talking more, dazing off less and actually eating fully amounts, not nimble tiny bites from before. It was amazing as to what one person can do by just being present.

"S-s-so wh-what was i-in that c-c-cave?" Margo asked, setting down her fork. After 3 years she still hadn't known what was close to killing her and that lady. The thought bugged her every night, not because of what her parents were trying to convince her it was, but because out of everybody she had been the unlucky soul to fall victim.

"A Tarasque." Sam explained casually. Alec raised an interesting eyebrow. The man acted as what he had said was completely, 100% normally and sane. Margo still looked lost as to what had taken her. Sam noticed her confusion and pursed his lips with another small grin. "It's got the body of a fish, the head of a lion, bat wings and a serpent's tail; but most of the time it's just a black shadow with red eyes."

"Huh." Both Alec and Wendy mumbled.

"You can basically kill it with holy water and a cross. It likes to lure people- in that case being Margo, out into the forest where it then steals them away."

"That sounds like a bad porno." Alec added pointlessly. Sam's eyes snapped to his at the perverted comment as if searching for something. Wendy slapped her brother upside the head in disapproval. There was a kid here and Alec was just spewing out gross comments everywhere.

"You're such an idiot." She scolded, receiving an eye roll from Alec.

"Yeah well, you're a dumbass." He shot back childishly. As the two bickered like kids back and forth, Margo couldn't help but notice the faint sad frown on Sam as the two watched the siblings fight.

"Y-y-you o-o-oka-ay?" She asked quietly to him. Her hero turned surprised by the question, swiveled his head down to Margo nodding lightly. She pouted unconvinced, it didn't take a mastermind to figure out he was lying. "L-liar." Margo announced to him.

Her hero's brows shot up taken back. He never expected a little girl like her to be so assertive. "He reminds me of my brother." Sam informed slowly to Margo. "Always was able to conjured up something with his perverted mind. You remember him, don't you?"

Margo nodded. "I-I re-re-remember everyb-body. H-he had h-her am-amulet on," Margo explained gesturing to Wendy's amulet that hung from her neck comfortably. "a-and a lea-leather jacket, it w-was w-warm a-and sm-smelled l-like g-gas."

Sam nodded, the girl had pretty much summed up his brother in just a few repeated sentences. "W-where is h-he?" She asked innocently. Sam ducked his head instinctively down to his plate, staring intently at the half-eaten pasta. He missed him so much, never would have he thought he'd be thinking that but in truth he really did miss him. "My brother- Dean, he... uh... he's gone."

Margo tilted her head in a innocent confusion. "W-what ha-happened?"

"He did his job." Sam whispered. The siblings parallel to the two stopped arguing and listened in, slowly the room being filled with a dread silence once again. The horrible reality being that some people's jobs require the constant sacrifice of their life.

"I thought you were a figment of my sister's imagination, y'know." Alec stated quietly, breaking the silence. Both Sam and Wendy swiveled their heads in his direction confused. "What?" They spoke in unison. Alec shifted in his seat sheepishly. "At first I thought my sister was just making up some fake adventure to go on, so I agreed because I knew it would make her happy. She talked so highly about two men that went around the country saving people, and... and I thought it was so absurd that she was talking about people she had never even met; she didn't even know your names. She'd always been like that, y'know? putting faith and trust in someone she doesn't know, I thought it was ridiculous, that maybe she was just reciting a bunch of characters from a book and mixing it with reality. Because there was no possible way that people could save others like in the books. But one thing lead to another, with all the people like Margo we talked to, to the car-accident and even the lady in plaid that smelt like whiskey wherever we went..."

"Lady in plaid?" Sam questioned, knitting his eyebrows tensely. Alec nodded. "Yeah, this lady would follow us around- like appear out of thin air. It was creepy at first, with those cold chills and odd rotten egg and whiskey smell, but then at the car crash she, well... she helped me."

"What did she look like?" Sam asked leaning in, against the table interested. Alec shifted again under scrutiny, and rubbed his neck.

"She was like, uh a blond lady- probably middle age wearing this faded plaid. Kinda had a bartender vibe to her, y'know?" He explained. "There was also these really nasty burns on her sometimes- they'd like disappear and reappear. Everytime we were stuck or in trouble she'd be there."

Eyes followed the tall man as he relaxed visibly and leaned back against the chair. His critical and worried eyes softened with comfort, almost like knowing who the lady was. His mind trailed off, staring at the plate below him in deep thought.

They didn't pester him anymore.

Wendy checked Sam's wounds one last time, replacing the soaked gauss with fresh ivory dry ones. As she gently cleaned his wounds, trying to avoid causing him pain Wendy looked up. "Y'know you can stay as long as you want. Alec might be hesitant at first, but he'll cave in, he always does." Wendy offered quietly. Alec and Margo had went on an adventure of their own trying to find something of Sam's. Sam had handed them a little metallic thing that Wendy couldn't see and told them where to go.

Before she had the option of asking Alec what the object was, the pair was out the door sprinting as quickly as they could off the property. Sam shifted under her delicate fingers, twisting his torso slightly.

"It's okay, I'll be find. I don't get hurt that often." He explained.

"That's not what I meant." She whispered tenderly. His eyes looked down to hers, then to the floor unable to hide the expertly hidden broken eyes this time.

"I use to get so annoyed with him sometimes. He was always blasting his music too loudly, picking up girls, making dumb references, putting himself in front of me, giving everything he had left just to keep me going. He was so stupid, so fucking- if he had only just thought of himself for once, then maybe, maybe he'd still be here." Sam hissed to himself in self-loath and misery.

"That stuff made him who he was. Keeping you safe- I think that was his mission. I don't know your brother, not like you do, but I'm pretty sure he loved you more than anything in this entire world. And with everything you've told me about what you and your brother have done: defied destiny, saved the world countless times, did the unthinkable and put a broken man back together- well all I can really wrap my head around is that, it was all for family. If your brother loves you that much, then don't think he's gone- because a person who loves as much as him will never, ever give up. He isn't gone." Wendy coaxed softly, finishing up her cleaning and setting the cotton down.

"I miss him." Sam whispered.

"He's coming back." Wendy got up from her knees and stood to full height, looking up at her hero. He did not look like a hero to the common eye, but that's why heroes were great. They could be anybody, they didn't have to be strong, or smart, or charismatic. They just had to be: loyal, caring, brave, willing. They had to have a purpose, something to fight for, whether a family member, a lover, money, or the world; something so great it was not worth giving up. Wendy stood in front of a hero who was lost, but Argonauts always made a comeback. That's what made them heroes.

"You are always welcome here, Sam." Wendy mumbled. "You told me once, that you were going to take care of your family. Well my brother is the only family I've got left. But family isn't just blood and when people with little to no family comes around, their friends are their next family. I might not know a lick about you, but don't think for a second that I don't consider you my friend. Friends are my family, and I will do anything for my family."

Sam nodded and Wendy pulled Sam into a soft embrace. Burying her face in his warm plaid, she dug her thumbs into his back, scrunching her nose up against his chest.

Heroes didn't always escape a battle unharmed, they were sccared and burnt, broken and alone; it was reality. But every hero had the mysterious stranger that kept them going a little bit longer, then another and another. They'd come and go like rain, but they always had an impact.

The pair broke off when a low faint humming voiced itself from outside the house. It roared like a lion but also purred as one. Wendy knew that rumble, she dreamt about it every night. It had become a signal for hope for the hopeful lady. The pair made their way to the front door, opening it up. There at the end of the driveway was a purring black beast that shimmered brightly from the sun's rays. Inside waving happily from the backseat was Margo, a smile as big as the Grand Canyon evident on her face. Alec was sat in the driver's comfortable and relaxed. Alec got out of the car, followed by Margo who skipped towards the pair. They walked up, all meeting in the middle of the driveway. Alec extended his hand, opening up his hand to present the metal key to the car.

"Man, does she run." Alec praised appreciatively. Sam smiled taking the keys back and tucked them into his jean pocket. Alec stepped aside beside Margo and Wendy. Sam kneeled down to Margo, who flew at him in a hug. They didn't say anything, but the little girl and her hero didn't need too. They communicated by heartbeat; because when there was a heartbeat, there was life. Margo's heart was beating, 3 years ago it might have not.

Sam kissed the top of Margo's head and broke off. The little girl, shuffled next to Alec, who pulled her close to his side warmly. Sam turned lastly to Wendy, who was holding back brimming tears of joy.

"Next time you're here, you owe me a drive." Wendy joked, attempting to distract the tears. Sam laughed, bobbing his head up and down. "I sure do."

"Goodbye Sam." She smiled, warmly at him. "This time next year, I expect you to be bleeding at my front door- got it?"

Sam nodded and with the strength he had reserved for that moment, pulled Wendy into a tight hug. "Thank you." He whispered, in her fiery red hair.

They broke off, despite Wendy wanting to hold him a tiny bit longer. If he needed them, he'd be back. The two always found themselves in each others presence when needed. Sam smiled encouragingly at the trio before, turning and making his way down the driveway over to the black beast he grew up in and called home. Sam paused just beside the driver door and turned his heel back towards the house. Standing side by side were 3 people who were once strangers, but in a time of only a day, have learned to love as family. He didn't have much of a family, but in front of him were three people who loved him. He had broken into her house empty, but left a grateful man. His brother wasn't the only one to care for him.

And so the question still stood; surround a lonely man with love, and what do you get?

There was a solution to loneliness,

It was love. 

_"There is freedom within, there is freedom without, try to catch the deluge in a paper cup._  
 _There's a battle ahead, many battles are lost, but you'll never see the end of the road, while you're traveling with me."_  
Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over 


End file.
